Edge City

Police Commissioner Alex Felton was shot while delivering a televised speech. The assassin was Cp. Karlin Devereaux, out of Downtown, part of the mayoral detachment with 30 years on the force.

Tracking Devereaux’s movements before the assassination, they connected him to a conversation with a spirifer in a bar. Twitterpate relieved him of his inhibitions, and in that suggestible state he ended up shooting Felton. (He showed no remorse before, during, or after.)

The Ghost consulted with the crew on their efforts, and urged Adrian to take care of the spirifer (and other demon influences in Edgarton.)

Kryptma showed up, and observed what had transformed Lord Bat. She said it was a will and a darkness she had not seen; a full on demon sacrifice was needed to make the infernal mutagen that powered Lord Bat’s transformation.

Being all super, they tracked Twitterpate to his house, blew through him and a number of debtor bodyguards.

Settler

There was some information on Poe in the Veil, most of it was protected. They could learn that she was related to SpiderJewel, a Shadow who was briefly allied with the Ghost before irreconcileable differences led to a series of events that climaxed with Spiderjewel’s death. Spiderjewel had been an ally of the Enigmist as well. Spiderjewel was probably Shadow Creeper’s grand-mother (or great-grandmother etc.)

They visited Settler, and went into an old building, the Argosay. It was a previous supers hangout, and it had a big broken mural of the Ghost, the Enigmist, Spiderjewel, and Poe. The site was revered by the current Settler inhabitants. Poe was dismayed by the decay decades later; the area never recovered from the battles in her time.

Genevieve had a talk with the Ghost, because she was upset that Artemis was just allowed into the Specters without even a proper explanation or introduction. Also because of his withdrawal from the others who need the leadership. And because of the mystery around Poe. The Ghost retorted that he was acting carefully playing out a long game working to reduce the demonic taint in the city, which was enough for now.

Damn Ninjas

A ninja nicknamed “Bunyan” was harassing the Templar and their people in retribution against Templar attacks on ninja. Iron Bear and Burr tracked him down and fought him in an abandoned mall, where he danced and flipped and pranced around Iron Bear, infuriating him.

Irritated by the vandalism to GAT bots, the Recon Agents voted to approve Genevieve’s suggestion that the GAT bots be auctioned off as canvases to neighborhoods and organizations to decorate, then be put on active duty, but with some local pride dressing them up. This is a tactic to slow vandalism.

Matvey fought three werewolf kinfolk women and they managed to bring him down, which got them very excited, so they took him to their apartment where they shared a den, and sexed him up. They are known as the Furies, and their names are Tracey, Sylvia, and Arlene.

As part of her last preparations before leaving town, Emma painted an abstract “portrait” of Adrian. It appeared to be a constellation, with a strong star where his heart was, and abstract brush strokes around him that actually mirror an angled view of some of his protective runes. He thought it was sweet.

Burr continued her development of new cocktails and drink combinations to match a durable (regenerating) palate for cheap and vicious liquor. Examples include the Pain Shoggoth (which has a tennis ball with googly eyes on it in the gelatin of the drink) and Fuzzy Orgy on the Beach (which is pretty much everything in arm’s reach mixed up.) Traditional paper umbrellas seemed too small and frail for some drinks, so pinwheels substitute.

Matvey filmed an internet challenge to the Iron Skull to a meta brawl in Dencentrael because the Iron Skull has been trash talking him.

The Templar decided the bar (Escape Valve) needed a mechanical bull. They acquired one and installed it, and named it Rasputin. They spent a few hours’ sleep curled around it, surrounded by their bottles and cups, and the first ones to fall broke some of the glassware, starting a ground glass covering to the ground around the bull. The enclosure, is called “the Paddock.” There is chalkboard paint on one wall to track whatever records need tracking.

Teddy reviewed Matvey’s dimensions and is working on an Iron Bear vigilante outfit for him. (There are strong indicators Teddy did Lord Bat’s outfit too.) In the meantime, Teddy gave him a tremendous huge leather furred pimp coat and some Jackie O sunglasses.

Genevieve started a contract with local food truck vendors that they will serve scheduled times in the parking lot out back behind the Ropes, subsidized by the establishment on top of whatever they earn. The first was the Gyro Truck, owned by Assan Jim (who worries his daughter, who also works the truck, might be in danger. The owners promised they’d be responsible for her safety.) While gyros are good, he also developed a new menu item, “Handful of meat” for $2. It’s very popular.

Matvey provoked Artie (Alpha Wolf) to hurt him if he could, so Artie went for a crotch rip with his werewolf claws and still could not hurt the mutant, but got razzed by his pack for fondling the mutant’s balls, and he was sulky about that afterwards.

Leo is a rough-voiced barfly developing an affinity for googly-eyed tennis balls (though he refuses any suggestion he can be compelled to play fetch.)

After Emma headed out to Kingsport to be a starving artist for a summer, Adrian went to the Ropes and knocked off some rust, sparring with Chandler himself. Apparently Adrian has the skills to be a professional boxer (of course.)

The Gloaming Cabaret

Poe kept an eye on her guests, and noticed one who was getting lots of attention and spreading around supernatural energy—a beautiful woman with two big odd bodyguards. Poe summoned her upstairs to find she was a seccubus named Pilliars, who offered to be her friend and help her out (and was apparently able to rearrange her blood to be interesting to a vampire.) She even left some on the chair.

Poe resisted her overtures and told her to be good, then sent her away. Poe was further angered when Pillars seduced the coat check girl on the way out.

The cabaret was packed after the incident with Crew, so business was good. The cigarette girls also have wrist-mounted thumb-activated lighters, which they use to light their wares and to chase off wandering hands. Even the bouncers liked the new arrangement.

Mirov Matvey, the Iron Bear, (Simon) gathered some internet fame in meta brawls. He was called in by Kinslton through the Brotherhood of the Road to help out in Edgarton while Kinslton tracked down Carl Stanford to assassinate him. Matvey met the butler, and explored the city some, attracting the attention of a GAT bot because he was misshapen with muscle and had metallic skin. Treating the robot as his own personal SIRI, he got directions, and found a russian restaurant, Vissilay’s. There he met a number of Russian ex-pats who mostly worked on the subway in Edgarton. He was recognized and celebrated there.

He was also approached by the Recon Agent, who hired him on to work at Precinct 13 with the Recon Teams. The Agent was impressed at his no-nonsense public identity and willingness to serve.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Poe (Iris) refurbished the Gloaming Cabaret, a nightclub in Midtown, to its former glory. (It was originally a nightclub, but it was coverted to offices, then a warehouse, before Poe rebuilt it.) Poe managed to hire Chamille Crew, the hottest nightclub singer in Edge City, and she enjoyed a successful soft open of the club.

Mr. Fetch, servant to Baron Kennedov, visited and urged her not to make trouble. Kennedov also sent condolences regarding Poe’s mother.

The regulars had down time.

Genevieve Malone and her team put all their effort into getting the recreational facility, “The Ropes” ready for opening. In what spare time she had, she bounced down to the Shell Clan hideout for some ninjaball practice.

Burr helped Malone out, but also spent considerable time rolling around with the Templar. She adapted part of the Ropes to be a bar, called “Safety Valve,” and she picked up some bartending skill.

Adrian helped his wife Emma get ready for her summer in Kingsport, where Ellis would go along and do public sculpture while providing some bodyguard cover. He also kept up on his various contacts.

Saturday, May 21, 2011 IG.

Genevieve, Anna, Adrian, Emma, Burr, Poe, and Matvey were present at the grand opening of “The Ropes”, a new recreational facility in Torpedo Bay. The opening band was “The Hack ‘n’ Slash” led by Bandmaster Killjoy. Apollo Chandler, former celebrity boxer and new manager of the Ropes, cut the ribbon for the cameras, and there was catering to the modest turnout for the grand opening.

Visitors could see the boxing ring (labeled “punchy punchy”) and the informal sparring area (labeled “climby bitey”) as well as the arrow towards the bar in the back (labled “beer & ice”) and they could see how the facility was designed to give an at-risk population somewhere to gather and blow off steam and learn some discipline.

The Reconstruction Agent himself showed up and chatted with reporters, and some of the metas quietly headed to the bar, where Genevieve noticed Poe had joined the gathering using her stealthy vampiric influence. Poe offered the group a fine bottle of wine and invited them to the opening of her club in Midtown. Those affiliated with werewolves were instinctively distrustful, sensing Poe was a vampire.

After the event, the bar got properly broken in, and eventually people went their separate ways. They spent the day more or less uneventfully, and headed to the opening of Poe’s club that night.

The Gloaming Cabaret

The night was hopping with a great turnout for the club’s official open. Things were going well until the wall was smashed in by a mass of supernatural bats that harassed the room, then coalesced around the lead singer, Ms. Crew, and escaped the building bearing her aloft.

Matvey leaped up on buildings, followed by Adrian, and more of the characters followed as best they could; Anna broke into Poe’s car and picked up the stragglers. They pursued the swarm of bats to a clock tower a couple miles away.

Matvey announced the avengers’ arrival by hurling a Mr. Trashy through the clock tower, and bats swarmed out angrily. They were controlled by a man in a fancy bladed cape, who loudly announced he was Lord Bat. He used his supernatural bats to attack Matvey, who shrugged the assault off and battered him down.

Meanwhile Adrian raced up into the tower and found Ms. Crew unconscious on a waterbed, in a room draped with satin and such (before the dumpster slammed through it) with some carry-out pizza and wine for seductive purposes. He also found demonic graffiti, and in searching for what gave Lord Bat his power, he found summoning rituals designed to attract demonic attention, appended to pages in a library book.

Once Adrian returned with Ms. Crew safe and sound, Matvey finished defeating Lord Bat, and they put him in a truck to be imprisoned in Precinct 13. He shouted purple prose in a Transylvanian accent (the best he could do) but slipped into a more Midwestern cadence when not high on the bat power.

Crew went back to the nightclub with Poe and blew them away with some more singing, unfazed by her brush with danger. Attendance would be way up after that stunt.

Later interrogation of Lord Bat revealed his name was Sam Grabble. His summoning ritual got a demon to come to him, and the demon made him do things (like bite the heads off a bunch of bats) to get power. (They got the feeling this was the demon amusing itself at his expense.) He drank something glowing and green (some sort of hellish warpstone mutagen with nevercold brass) and it gave him his bat powers.

All he knew about the demon he summoned was it had a very tall hat, and round glasses, and too sharp a smile, an a long two-tined fork…

Adrian was having a nice lunch with Emma, getting ready to go to Kingsport to scout out a good place in Hilltown for her to spend the summer as a bohemian artist. She stepped away for a moment, and a demon, Mr. Charon, slipped up to the table. He shared the Baltimore Truth of 1796 with Adrian, scribbled on a page from a hymn book.

On his deathbed the One will be abandoned / Nodens will not come / The Green Flame will ascend / through all gates

Charon slipped away before Emma returned, and Adrian knew it was time to involve others in whatever might be going down in Kingsport.

Meanwhile Genevieve had restless dreams of running through Kingsport’s neighborhoods and time periods, accidentally spreading green flame everywhere she touched, until there was a single unifying green flame; she was surrounded by fog, and there were faces, and she woke in a state of terror.

They gathered together Lydia (who had stopped by Indigo’s place to collect his guitar for her own), Kinslton, and Burr. Time to go to Kingsport. They sent Emma and her things and Ellis with Mugsy by yacht, and they took the much shorter route through the Leatherbury Estate, emerging in the Kingsport Historical Society attic.

Barbeque With the Chief

They met with Chief Crane, who seemed a little sad. His wife Linda and children left him, so he was living alone; still, he was glad to see them and have a cookout. Apparently the weird things he had to deal with in Kingsport were eventually too much for his wife.

The only thing he was currently aware of was the disappearance of some vagrants; they were the canaries in the coal mine, indicating something larger might be amiss.

They checked on his Tchulza grubs, and were all startled to find the grubs very active in their glass jars. Another sign all was not well.

The energy of the small town was off, and it was unsettled with a miasma of Tchulzan energies. They decided to go check it out, noting that the center of the disturbance was a knot of energy at the peak of Kingsport Head, surrounding the Strange High House.

The Islander

As they headed through town, Adrian spotted Jorge Malinta, a strangely canny musician with the Brotherhood of the Road. Malinta observed that he was here to mark this momentous occasion, where a Great Seal may be sundered. He already composed a song as he prepared to bear witness.

Rather than performing the song himself, he nodded to a woman across the street who was performing for money. Adrian was sure to buy her CD. It was Stella Wilde, performing “Songs of the Sea, Volume IV.” The lyrics to the Eulogy for Bain:

An old man by a seashore at the end of day
Gazes the horizon with seawinds in his face
Tempest-tossed island, seasons all the same
Anchorage unpainted and a ship without a name

Sea without a shore for the banished one unheard
He lightens the beacon, light at the end of world
Showing the way, lighting hope in their hearts
The ones on their travels homeward from afar

[Chorus:]
This is for long-forgotten light at the end of the world
Horizon’s crying the tears he left behind long ago

The albatross is flying, making him daydream
The time before he became – one of the world’s unseen
Princess in the tower, children in the fields
Life gave him it all: an island of the universe

Now his love`s a memory, a ghost in the fog
He sets the sails one last time saying farewell to the world
Anchor to the water, seabed far below
Grass still in his feet and a smile beneath his brow

[Chorus x2]

They hurried on, to the base of the Kingsport Head, and up the slope.

Defenses

There was a massive defensive energy construct centered on the Strange High House, but as they hiked up they found human sacrifices at the center of mythos rituals tainted with demonic energy that drove the defenses back, ever imploding towards the house itself. They sensed danger around them as they moved ever higher in the punishing hike. They found more sacrifices, each fresher than the last. Within the barrier itself, they felt a weakening heartbeat.

They discovered there were disguised nightgaunts, just out of phase with prime, to discourage fliers (like Kinslton as he scouted.) He retreated, and they caught up near the edge of the defensive area to find a shoggoth chewing on it, draining its power, pushing it inward.

Genevieve managed to use her shaman powers and the Bauble to breach the defense briefly, enough to get in. They crept up to the High House and in through the back, and there they found Bain on his deathbed, brandishing a pistol at them.

He was terrified of Lydia, until he realized she was not with the cult of Tchulza, and did not know his sin. He mumbled something about how she was the Lady in the Tower.

He explained about the Nexus of Dreams outside his door (which was currently barred) and how it would burn a unidim (uni-dimensional, not multi-dimensional) creature to ash in an instant. However, it needs a catalyst to help it open or close, to regulate its dream energies and dimensional airlock.

Would Lydia shoulder the burden of regulating the Nexus until Nodens returned to bind or free her? She would have to put her will against the cultists connected by the Green Flame, each conducting an active ritual to take control of the Nexus and open it to Tchulza.

She agreed to take on that burden.

Defending the Nexus

Each point of the anchored Great Seal was hosting a ritual to take control of the time and space where it was anchored, to rip it loose and let the Tchulzan energies roar into the Nexus, reshaping the past and the future. Lydia could not stand against them all; they had to be disrupted.

Burr joined Kinslton in flying out of the defenses, to find the one nearest the High House. It was in a cave, stairs up to open space. Kinslton moved into the Periphery and through the stone to an otherdimensional space where a Crawling One led witches in the ritual, with byakhee guards. Kinslton broke through the byakhee easily enough, and could only defeat the Crawling One (a wizard made of grave worms) by chowing down unpleasantly. It was not all bad that Burr was stuck outside the cave.

Adrian and Genevieve and Anna went out too, finding the dimensionally hidden ritual around the boarding house and sorting it out as Kinslton and Burr went after another one.

With three down, Lydia threw open the doors, exposing herself to the Nexus of Dreams, and hurled her consciousness and body into the portal. She felt the ruthless ritual energy of Tchulza, but since she had the Cairn connection tying her into the ley lines of Prime, and since she was gifted in regulating the energies of the Green Flame, she could take their power and hurl it harmlessly through the Nexus instead of shattering it with a blow as they intended. The energy gusted away from Prime, and she stood in the breach, bearing the weight of regulating the Nexus.

William Bain quietly died.

Aftermath

Questioning a surviving witch, they discovered that Carl Sanford was behind organizing this assault on Prime. Kinslton remembered his original mission to hunt the rogue mythos wizard down and put a stop to him, so he decided to follow this fresh lead to Europe. He put in a call to the Brotherhood to send someone else to the brownstone while he was gone, to assist the vigilantes of the city in his absence.

Lydia discovered that while she could meditate and even dimensionally travel, she was drawn inexorably back to wake up in the Strange High House. She was rooted to the Nexus in ways she could only begin to understand.

The Great Seal was sundered, but the damage it had once contained had been healed through reaching into those rituals in the past and draining them of the Tchulza energy they once held, venting it off-plane so it had never been able to pose a threat to the dimensional walls (which were still thinner, but not dangerously so any longer.) With Lydia regulating the Dream Nexus, Kingsport posed no greater threat than other places of power around the world.

The others could return to their lives, but Lydia resolved to wait until Nodens, God of Dreams, revisited his Nexus and set a course for the rest of her life…

The next morning, Pillars called Kinslton; she had her end of the deal, and she wanted to meet. He wanted to delay the meeting, but she wouldn’t have it, so he invited her over. The butler left, and Pillars told Kinslton that Dan Chauncey’s soul was held by Marcy; not only the name, but the letter in the Correspondence that matched it, so there could be no mistake. Then she pounced, and they had intimate contact, and also she pulled the demon grubs out of him; she asked if he wanted to keep one or two, and he wanted two. With her hellish load, she strolled off, leaving Kinslton something of a wreck.

Genevieve checked on her “werewolf gym” to find that development was slow. They were taking rusting playground equipment out of abandoned school buildings, but they didn’t have the funds to put in an after-school tutoring area or a meditation area. Genevieve extended them a line of credit to use with the development of the facility to speed things along.

Adrian’s birthday party would be at Feducci’s the day after tomorrow, so they didn’t want to do anything that would make that a mess. (He would be turning 28!)

Lydia checked in with the bookstore (Burr in tow, to keep an eye on her) and got cleaned up. Things were fine at the bookstore, and Lydia figured that night she’d look for Indigo, to confront him and clear the air about how they left things. Burr figured she’d go along.

The First Visit to Kennedov

Genevieve, Adrian, and Anna went out to the island via Kennedov’s speed boat, and they were welcomed in to speak with him. He appeared to be in his thirties, very energetic with stolen blood. He told them he was looking to bring things to a conclusion, and his intent was that no one would be killed. Genevieve reminded him of their alliance, and that was sufficient; they headed back to the mainland—but Kennedov asked them to send Kinslton his way.

The Second Visit to Kennedov

Kinslton was woken by the telepathic summons, and groggily flew out to the island. Kennedov reminded him of his debt and loyalty, and asked him to come along to capture and retrieve Indigo. To that end, he pointed out a white ash stake; through the heart, it would immobilize but not kill. Kinslton agreed to help, enchanting the stake to work even better.

They went out to the Apache helicopter, and flew into town, guided by Kennedov’s senses to find Indigo.

Finding Indigo

Genevieve and company saw the helicopter, and Genevieve made psychic contact with Kinslton to find out what was up, as well as with Lydia and Burr who were in the area also looking for Indigo. They converged on a building, the Luck Dragon, which was a laundry and an opium den. As Kennedov and Kinslton dropped from the chopper to the roof where Indigo waited, the others cleared all the people out of the building in case it went pyrotechnic.

Kennedov confronted Indigo with waves of supernatural majesty that forced his childe face-down in the sand of the zen garden. Kinslton moved to stake him, and three robed figures came out—Setites. They tried to use their fascinating gaze to immobilize him, but it wasn’t nearly strong enough; awed, they wanted to talk to him, they were enthused about maybe being of service to a Lord of Flesh demon. He set a time and place for the following night. Then they sloped off and he jammed the stake into Indigo, who was helpless.

Below, the others watched as the chopper took off with Indigo as a prisoner. Lydia tried to think of a way to affect what was going on to free Indigo, but sided with restraint, not wanting to add tension or violence to a situation that her friends wanted to stay quiet. She seethed with a lost opportunity to confront Indigo about what he did to her, and what feelings she still had for him.

Do Not Pass Go

Kennedov took Kinslton and Indigo into the bowels of his island, far deeper than expected, to a prison where Indigo was shackled to a wall that was pointed into the earth and locked into place behind a number of other walls. Kinslton was allowed to know his location, though Kinslton suggested he might mind-wipe himself.

The Meeting is Set

Kinslton told everyone he was meeting the Setites, and Genevieve told the Ghost, who rendezvoused with Adrian to be there in case it all went south. Kinslton met with two of the three cultists, and they expressed earnest enthusiasm to offer service to him. Because he was a demon. They gave him a card with contact numbers, and also a stone he could put in the still-warm body of a human sacrifice where the heart goes, to get a more direct line to them. When they left, the Ghost apprehended them for further questioning. Kinslton gave the presents to the Ghost too, and they all left the park.

Directed Meditations

Lydia was brooding, watching the sun come up, when she heard an early morning accordion busker; weird, but too weird when he started playing one of Indigo’s songs. She teleported down to confront him, and he directed her into a restaurant where someone was waiting for her.

She met the Director, who told her some members of the Black Hand had contacted him through his Brotherhood of the Road friends, and they wanted to attack Kennedov’s island and kill him there. The Director finds assassination distasteful, but rescue could be interesting. Lydia agreed, and wanted to be further involved. The Director said he’d contact her, and he slipped out a secret door.

Genevieve checked in with the Recon Teams to find that today was “skeleton crew” day where all non-essential personnel were helping in the labs, cleaning vandalized gat bots (as the cosmetic damage was far outstripping the technical staff’s maintenance schedules.) Genevieve bound some cleaning spirits to hoses and sponges to help out, before checking through her various responsibilities and heading out.

Kinslton called Pillars, and after he talked to a debtor, he talked to her when she called him right back. Kinslton wanted to know how to get Dan’s soul back without undoing the benefits of Dan selling his soul. Pillars explained that the contract was held by a demon; if Kinslton wanted to know which demon, he would give her access to him and everything in his skin for an hour. He agreed. He also started noticing more black carrion birds around than usual.

Adrian spent time with Emma as she paged through the Kingsport papers, looking for a good house to rent for the summer.

Kryptma showed up at Favian Church with a plastic honeybear container full of a sort of rage gel, so Lydia could down it and let a lycanthropic rage battle her vampiric beast and root it out of her soul, providing anger and energy far beyond her own capacity. Lydia rejected the substance, determined to battle this out on her own, and she did not want to go somewhere in the Umbra to burn it out with quantum energies in a safe environment. Kryptma shrugged and left.

Say Anything

As night approached, Kinslton waited where Indigo had disappeared into the earth. When the vampire emerged, they had a nice chat, then Indigo went to the roadside and seemed to meditate or something equally boring, oriented towards the church.

Adrian had a pleasant conversation with Su, one of the acolytes, discovering she was less religious and more vengeance oriented, and the next stop was surviving monster hunting in Detroit to “earn those bones.” He showed her some magic.

Burr made a glorious salad for supper, and everyone enjoyed it (even though Lydia couldn’t keep her supper down, with the intensity of her inner turmoil.) Burr and Abrams had a good day reviewing the gun collection and keeping an eye on the situation, but at sundown they resumed their “just in case” vigil outside Lydia’s room, their armament supplemented by Anna bringing some one-shot dragon’s breath rounds.

In her meditation, Lydia was riding a shantak out at the umbral edge, a peaceful memory, when Indigo intruded into her mind through their link. They had a heartfelt conversation where she expressed her frustration, anger, and disappointment, and he defended his control of her by saying he felt vulnerable, and wanted her to be happy, and he would have released her slowly instead of this painful scarring rush. He also told her if she continued her “detox” then he would take that as rejection, and not be available to her anymore.

When he left her meditation, she struggled mightily with deciding what to do, then she went ahead and uprooted his vampiric presence inside herself, tearing out parts of herself in the process, but finally freeing herself of his influence.

Outside, Indigo turned and headed into town, so Kinslton headed to the gazebo.

Shiny

Concerned by all the carrion birds hanging around, Kinslton used the Ouijiwatch to contact Genevieve, and she joined him at the gazebo. They determined not all of the birds were real; some were shadows. (Genevieve enchanted a gum wrapper to serve as the translator in talking to the birds.) The birds said they were pursuing a comfortable spot, they didn’t connect it to Kinslton (but the connection was clear to the more clever people.)

Intrigued, they went to the Mirror Van and stepped off Prime, and saw a pollen-like dust emanating from him. Also, his demon grubs were somewhat fatter, and possibly restless. What was about to happen to him?

Genevieve went in to Precinct 13 to talk with Victor, who presented to the police captains the night before. His speech went alright, but he used his newfound memory ability to capture the reaction of various opinion leaders. Frustrated by the lack of immediate support, he mulled over how to continue his actions to minimize the need for police backing, while Genevieve advised patience and continued cultivation of the police leadership.

Kinslton and Burr went back to Mumford Block to see Dan and tell him about the snake infestation coming to the city, and how the snake people had an interest in Mumford Block, advising caution on his part. He agreed to be careful, and gave them a tour of the new Mumford Block. It will be amazing when it is constructed!

While at sea, Emma told Adrian she wanted him to anonymously rent one of those subdivided old houses the artists crash in for a Kingsport summer season so she could try being a bohemian artist (with all the readily available back-ups of wealth and security.) He agreed.

Lydia Resists

Increasingly uncomfortable with her Tchulza capacity, Lydia read up on how to restrain anything that might want to take over and make her into an avatar. After some unsatisfying reading about how Elder Signs discourage possession, she read that fortifying places of power was humanity’s strongest resistance (rather than portable talismans) and her natural abilities would undo many of the proscribed remedies as soon as she teleported.

She took her problem to Kinslton and Burr, and they used the Elder Sign and the Key of Solomon to experiment with slowing down her teleportation ability (and discovered Ladder Mike was sometimes lairing in the attic of Kinslton’s brownstone.)

As they approached the time when Lydia was planning to meet with Indigo, she decided that since he was exerting supernatural influence over her and opening the way to a darker future, she did not trust him and did not want to meet with him after all. Staying dormed down and meditating, she resisted the grief and panic she felt that propelled her towards him, gritting her teeth and staying put.

Kinslton called in Genevieve, and Anna called in Pellwitch, and they saw Lydia’s emotional state. Genevieve, Kinslton, and Adrian decided to go to where Indigo was expecting to meet Lydia and have a chat about how this was not okay.

A Talk in the Park

In a Downtown park, Indigo waited for Lydia and instead met her friends. They told him they were not okay with his emotional control of her, and he wanted to talk to Lydia about it. He agreed to release her in a month, but the process was not cold turkey or easy, and he needed to have that control a little while longer.

Thoroughly unimpressed by his disregard for Lydia’s consent, and possibly well-being, the tone shifted in a more hostile direction. Indigo appeared to feel some repressed anger towards Genevieve, and when Kinslton threatened to use magic on him if he damaged the brownstone, that really offended Indigo. Where Adrian threatened him should he bring harm to Lydia. They left him sitting in the park in the rain.

A Trip to an Island

They went to Besquelle and caught a speedboat out to Baron Kennedov’s island, where the ancient vampire met with them. He appeared to be in h is 50s, wearing a peculiar alien style of clothing.

Genevieve told him about Lydia, and the warpstone, and the Tchulza avatar risk, and swapping blood with Indigo. Kennedov seemed restrained, but upset. What was the connection? He admitted that he was somewhat involved, fifty years ago, in the events that led up to Irina Favian’s death.

The head of the Tchulza cult, Cora, wanted to insure against him, so she seduced Indigo. That could not stand, and she had to be dealt with, and Indigo has not forgiven him for that. Grudges and such are different for vampires than they are for mortals, and fifty years is not nearly enough time for something like that to cool down. There is an element of revenge here.

While he did not share the whole story, that was all Kennedov told them, and he vanished into his castle. Nick Fetch was there to escort them out, and to reinforce the idea that this was uglier than the vampires were letting on.

Take Me to Church

They talked with Fr. Abrams at Favian Church, and he agreed to offer shelter. They took Genevieve’s umbra road to the church, emerging through a mirror inside a panel van near the Great Seal. Abrams drove them in, introducing Su and Marie, novices the Order assigned to him for a while. He also got a .50 cal he used to kill a snake monster that attacked the church.

Burr and Anna went on a food run while everyone else settled in. Uncomfortable with the Great Seal and holy ground, Kinslton haunted a gazebo on the grounds, and as he flew patrol he saw Indigo standing by the road concentrating. When dawn approached, Indigo withdrew through the forest, then dropped through the stream into the earth to hide for the day.

Genevieve released Kissynose the enchanted bat skeleton, and Kryptma returned it before dawn, coming into the church having outclassed Su (who tried to hold her at gunpoint.) How can we deal with the blood bond Lydia endures? Well, Kennedov is probably a 6th generation, so Indigo would be 7th; that’s powerful stuff.

Three options came to mind; repeated maxing out of power to burn out the influence in quantum energy. Would that threaten the dimension, since she could be an avatar of Tchulza? She’s not far enough down that road, she isn’t connected to that much power, she’s not drawing it from the cairn, Kryptma thinks it would be safe. Second, a rage philter that would last for a dozen hours and let a rage beast fight the bonding beast; Lydia would be wounded and exhausted by the end, but they could keep her alive and it would be much easier for her to eject the winner in that supernatural tussle. Or, go to some cleansing pool in the Umbra and negotiate usage.

Genevieve and Anna went to work at Precinct 13, where Genevieve helped Victor work on his speech for Wednesday to the police captains of the precincts. He wanted her help in particular to get the captains on his side. Overall he’s been taking an aloof stance using proxies to speak for Precinct 13, showing what they could of meta treatment without divulging secrets, focusing on how they’re using best practices and industry standards as far as possible.

There have been 6 break-out attempts since the news; one was a PACON activist effort with no guns, easily subdued (and disavowed by the organization, as it does not condone criminal activity.) The Crush School tried one with a sniper shooting Lights-Out-ers rounds at gat bots, but it didn’t get anywhere before the intruders were captured. The break-in attempts bolster Commissioner Felton’s proposal to add drones to the Recon Team arsenal.

Lydia woke up in the boiler of a casino riverboat, where Indigo had offered to share dreams (and she doesn’t feel like doing that.) She teleported home, leaving Indigo there, and spent most of the day reading.

After spending her down time studying wizardry of the Mythos variety, Burr decided to do some day drinking with the Templar. She arrived at the Leaky Gasket to meet Keith, the new omega, and Tonya, the new beta, and to find the Templar overall in a sour mood with Artie the grouchiest of them.

Turns out a hot woman came in and was putting the moves on him, and he smacked her and threw her out. She smelled of serpent, and it got his guts in a knot, so he acted on instinct to reject her, but the incident left him unsettled.

Kinslton arrived later, and played some pool with the Templar.

Dan in Danger

Then a dapper demon named Charon introduced himself (bowler hat, monocle, pinstripe suit, goatee, gloves, all of it.) He was looking for Kinslton, and wanted to inform him that Dan Chauncey could be in some danger. That’s all.

Kinslton, Burr, and Artie drove over to Mumford Block, where Dan Chauncey (CEO of Gazelle Construction) was working on the site. Using his pull with the Chauncies, Kinslton got Dan down to talk with them.

Kinslton told Dan they knew about his demon deal, and a demon told them he was in trouble. He wasn’t happy they knew about any of that, but reluctantly revealed that he met a woman at lunch. (Artie smelled her on him.) It was the same woman that approached Artie, but Dan wasn’t cursed with lycanthropy, and didn’t pick up on the cues. Her name was Sandy, and they were going to meet at the Pierced Pig.

They told Dan to skip the supper, and they headed out.

Research

Kinslton researched what he could find on the Order of Set or snake things in the mythos. There was the obvious, with Yig, but beyond that dark talkes from the Delta of the Nile and New Orleans.

Burr read in occult books, finding how thaumaturgical traditions had distaste for snake worshipping cults of darkness and seduction, in part because they used drugs and blood sex magic instead of proper geometrical theorums and spells.

Both uncovered a broad variety of cults, from the Serpents of the Light to the Fangs in Darkness to the Corrupts, and on and on.

Genevieve went to the Veil in the Mausoleum, and found a heavily redacted entry from the 20s where apparently the Ghost fell to the charms of a snake cult briefly. She also found that the current Ghost, Ryan, had been password protecting his entries. She figured out a workaround to get into them.

He had many notes, but he was not as good at documentation as some previous Ghosts; they were notes for his use. He compiled a list of suspected targets for the snakes in Edgarton, including both Carruthers and the Favian Manor butler, and Anna as a weak point. Also Councilmen Sylvester Baker and Marguarite Smithton, police captain Gary Williams, Judge Angie Blockfort; what’s going on?

He also had extensive interest in a code name FIRSTCODE, which was a subject of the Comstock Project. All the original scientists on that project were dead, and many who had close friendships or professional interest in it were dead too. He was tracking out the expanding blood trails.

Angry that the Ghost wanted her help but did not trust her, Genevieve left the Ghost a note of where they’d be and what they’d be doing—after she changed his password.

The Pierced Pig

Burr and Artie ate inside, waiting, while Kinslton assumed bird form to keep a birds-eye view on the situation. Genevieve contacted the Ghost, who brought the Hearse. Kinslton spotted a black van with a black snake pattern on it, with two men inside after Sandy strutted out of the van to go into the restaurant.

They sent Artie to lure her outside as Kinslton assumed human form, loitering by the door, enchanting his weapon. Artie mastered his conflicted feelings to allow her to lure him into her trap, and as they headed outside, Kinslton sucker-punched her and Artie grabbed her as the Ghost shocked the van and took out the two inside it. They piled the prisoners in the Hearse. The Ghost had a terse conversation about Genevieve about the FIRSTCODE and how it was about rewriting reality based on cognition, and how dangerous it could be to combine it with lycanthropes—but there wasn’t time for more conversation. The operation was over, and the Ghost had prisoners.

Genevieve and Lydia

Lydia texted and called Genevieve, who agreed to have a chat. They met in the Parlor of Relative Safety, and Lydia reviewed what Adrian told her about Tchulza. Genevieve filled in the part about how a previous incarnation of the Chalice Bearer, Irina Favian, had been Swashbuckler’s lover (before he was a pirate) and how when the cult of Tchulza tried to burn the Chalice Bearer out of all time, Swashbuckler saved the Chalice Bearer by killing Irina before the ritual completed. (Also Kennedov knows more about Irina.)

Mainly to say that it would be a bad idea to become an avatar of Tchulza. Also, Genevieve was uncomfortable with Indigo having the level of control he has over Lydia. Lydia took the grim news, and needed to mull it over.

About a week after the last session, Lydia and Adrian met for coffee, and Adrian caught her up on what the group had been up to. Lydia was going to investigate her current connection to the cairn site, and Adrian agreed to help when she called.

Lydia worked with Morris Pennywise, who discovered that Mother Wolf had stripped out the various energy signatures from Lydia to get right into her core. Living things add rings to their energy, like trees do in their cross section, and Mother Wolf managed to remove a lot of that and tamper with Lydia’s core. The only surgeons that are highly skilled (and you don’t want an amateur) tend to be super-evil, because messing with a living thing’s life organization this way requires a certain type.

Visiting the Cairn

Morris offered to lead them in the back door to the cairn to see what changed, and Adrian agreed to go along. They traveled through the Umbra and found the back section; instead of it being earthen, with veins of metal and stone and roots, it was all dank concrete. They found their way into a service passage between foundations, and up into a horrible industrial cube farm sort of building.

Lydia realized they were inhabiting her memory of Skyfall, the lab where she was raised. The orderlies were spirits, maybe reskinnings of Mother Wolf’s puppies. They navigated to her room, and she commanded the spatial relations of the place with authority even though her quantum powers were shut off here.

She talked to Her Doctor, a goateed man who was overintellectualized and secretive, and he helped her get some insights into this place (as did Morris.) She came to understand that dimensions were buttressed from the inside outward, as opposed to normal space which built from the ground up. The collapse in a dimension was always from the outside to the middle. And the center anchor of this place was moved into Lydia, so the whole dimension was now unstable and wanted to stabilize by replacing her life energy in its center. She understood that to be the testing room, and was in no hurry to get strapped in somewhere she could not escape.

They moved to the day room, for food and crafts. She got on a computer and used its interface to understand more. The spirit power was indicated by key cards, those were the center of each manifestation and symbols of their power. From black at the bottom, up through the colors to the highest access, diamond—the only access that would let her come and go freely. Only one other entity had diamond level, and that would be the new powerful spirit guardian that came here, since Mother Wolf was allowed to escape. With the high level of warpstone poisoning, the new guardian was guaranteed to be a bane spirit—not one they wanted to meet.

Adrian and Lydia also noticed she was logged in as Tchulza—but they would talk about that later. In the meantime, she decided that she would not settle for a counterfeit access, but she wanted a legitimate maximum access clearance. Morris agreed to help her do it, but warned her the cost was steep. She lost a permanent Will point, and gained a diamond access card. Now she could come and go through the front gate of the installation.

They marched right out the front, past the spirit guards and vicious attack dogs, and surfaced through the pool by Old Man Marcher’s place (now a skeletal ruin, but the cairn keeper’s cottage was still marginally intact.)

Tchulza Rising

Later, back at the yacht, Lydia and Adrian had a discussion of Tchulza, and the power of that mythos god who tried to burn a hole in the protections of Prime, and was sworn to destroy the Chalice Bearer forever. Lydia was forced to contemplate the possibility she was being cultivated as an avatar of a mythos god.

As a side note, they also put together that “Dr. Garver” was a senior scientist at Skyfall, and also one of the lead scientists working on cycling darkshell embryos through Burninator.

Lydia spent the rest of her time off cultivating her friendship with Olivia, building up her memory, and doing some research as she tended the other aspects of her life.

She did have disturbing dreams of the cells in Skyfall and herself as warden of them, with spirit guards, where she tore timespace to go straight into her cairn space. She woke from those dreams with steamy breath and ambiguous feelings…

After Kinslton gave the story to the reporter, he called him back and threatened him, telling him not to print it until he heard back from Kinslton, or the vigilante would refuse to corroborate the story.

The vigilantes of the Inspecters met at the Justice Dome that night, responding to Kinslton’s invitation. The corax wizard explained that he grew up in captivity for his first 16 years, property of a mad wizard who cultivated his family in an attempt to get more corax he could sell to other wizards as familiars. He managed to escape, but his parents were killed. He was found in the Kings Borough of London by the Brotherhood of the Road, and ended up with the name Kinslton as some sort of abbreviation. He then learned mythos magic, and when he was strong enough, he returned to the wizard’s lair and killed him for revenge, beginning a time of wizard assassination in his life that led him to Edge City.

So, when he found out how Growlback and other metas were being tortured in captivity, he could not allow it to continue. He asked the Inspecters to take over the role of meta containment, instead of trusting Precinct 13 and the Recon Teams.

Victor was furious that Kinslton went to the press and “outed” meta torture, condemning all the work of the Recon Teams without even consulting him. He pointed out metas are even less likely to surrender if they think they’re being tortured, and pointed out this was hard on the public relations spaces they all have to deal with. In the end, he flew away to go deal with spin with his PR team.

As part of the ongoing discussion, Swashbuckler was protective of the journalist; the story is given out, no backsies now. Burninator insisted there had to be more thinking through alternatives, especially before trashing what’s already in place, because the need is real and immediate and if we don’t go with Precinct 13 we have to have another plan in place. Genevieve pointed out Victor was going to be targeted when it was time for metas to be discredited as vigilantes in the city and she was in place to keep the door open and maybe salvage the situation when that happened. It also came up that restraining metas is hard. The Ghost didn’t say anything until the end, when he encouraged Kinslton to come up with a better plan. Through it all, Alpha Wolf was very supportive of Kinslton.

Overall the group was unimpressed by his “fire ready aim” approach, but generally sympathetic to his goal of human meta storage even if he hadn’t through through any of the details of potential obstacles or alternatives. It was up to him to solidify their tolerance into support, or evaporate it.

Downtime to Monday, March 28, 2011.

Genevieve maintained her commitments and hunted for Alecia, thinking about seeing if it would be wise to draw her back to the city and re-integrate her with the Chauncies or not. Her investigative powers did not turn Alecia up, as she has been globe trotting under the radar. From the west coast she went to Asia, to Hong Kong and points north of that, traveling around to Italy—the trail was erratic and difficult to follow from half the world away. Psychic scanning did not reveal her either.

Adrian spent much of his time meditating with the Brindalyn Slayer Suit, closing in on the next piece while his bodyguard stood over him. It took weeks, but he finally located it in a magically warded room, in a pool, in a box, under Torpedo Bay. He found the helmet. He worked with Teddy to get a persona put together for the Talisman, including a tac net and some knock-out spray gas in gauntlets. He also went to th American Southwest with Mugsy and killed a necromancer who had a vulture and a couple apprentices, they were animating a biker gang and terrorizing the Brotherhood of the Road. Adrian sorted them out, and in exchange he got a glove with only one finger, and it served as an interdimensional space where he could store his staff.

Kinslton worked with the Brotherhood of the Road and got together with the Masters of Liepzeig, a group of 12 powerful mythos wizards. They created a cyst gate in the basement of the ruined arcology in Torpedo Bay, with a massive ritual involving over 200 chanting participants as well as the Masters all channeling through Kinslton. The cyst gate has 5 spots on the dial, addresses that correspond to 4 cyst prisons built on the wall of the deep umbra, taking inspiration from the lairs of dimensional shamblers. Crafting the gate (which can only be used by mythos wizards, using a minor ritual that can be taught) and the address cysts connected to coordinates absorbed his full time, energy, and favors for the five weeks.

Adrian takes Emma out, they go frog eating, then shopping in Craven Bottoms. They are at an antique car show when Growlback robs it. He almost gets away, but the Recon Teams stick with him, and he ends up in a wrecked ship in the docks. The Reconstruction Agent fights him, and gets kicked around pretty hard; they eventually bring Growlback down and take him home, with Kinslton and Genevieve looking on. (Adrian didn’t keep up with the fight, but did notice some observers watching the fight as though it was a test.) Genevieve followed up on this by looking back in time and identified Carson Vanderbilt, one of the Bertinelli crime family’s fixers, watching Growlback fight to escape. There was an extra roof camera. Genevieve looked back in time to see an Edgarton Power and Light employee put it in place, but he wasn’t recognized.

Doc Williams, the mad doctor of the Recon Teams, was taken out of the rotation of those supervising the Kids with the Recon Teams, the mutant brother and sister. Victor made the change in response to advice from Genevieve and Kinslton.

Lydia researches “Tchulza” in various spellings in various occult and history books and doesn’t find anything that matches the words. Indigo muttered the word when they were making out, and he told her it means “chosen” but she’s looking for independent verification, because something about the word unsettles her.

Genevieve visits the Shell Clan, and goes to the Bone Room, an ossuary made of skelebot parts. She plays “punchball,” a made-up ninja sport, and also consults with the jonin while he’s on snuff. He mutters something about “the green flame is rising in the city.”

Kinslton followed Growlback in to check on how they kept him imprisoned. He was affected by seeing the way the Recon Teams drilled into his skull, and kept his regeneration hampered so he couldn’t get away. Kinslton decided to resign from the Recon Teams altogether.

Kinslton found the cub reporter he first granted an interview, Billy, and told him he was now against Precinct 13 because of their mishandling of prisoners. But, he clarified, he was not against their overall mandate. He wanted to disassociate himself from Precinct 13, and he cited treatment of Growlback as why. He refused to comment on other vigilantes.

Kinslton was let out of Tarasuko’s cage by the Ghost, who thanked him. However, he wasn’t sure how to let Kinslton out and protect the secret of his lair. He decided to put a bag on his head and take him out in the jet, then he took the bag off, they flew some fun maneuvers, and the Ghost opened his canopy so he was sucked out over the city. He turned into a bird and flew home, still unsure of where the Mausoleum might be.

Flaming Motel Horror Show

Adrian and Burr watched over the motel, and the only activity was a scruffy man leaving some hours before dawn, walking into a field and dropping into the earth. Otherwise, the sun came up fine, and only some mastiffs covered in dry blood and viscera stood guard.

Adrian checked the place out using magical stealth, finding a horror show of death and carelessness and filth. He effortlessly executed the mastiffs at close range with magic, and he and Burr used cloth and gas salvaged from the parking lot to burn down the motel with the vampires inside, staying to make sure all four were dead and the place was thoroughly burned.

The evidence that Adrian found before torching the place was an abused and filthy spiral notebook full of scribbled rune shapes, doodles, and the name “Zakoth.”

Nalla’s New Sword

Previously they were notified that Dougles Singleton was found beheaded at a rest stop 30 miles out of town. Lydia felt determined to do something about Nalla, checking in with Fr. Abrams to find that Nalla (who he considered somewhat arrogant) was back at her home in the stacks.

Lydia visited her there, and again heard from Nalla that her plan was to use cars, guns, and if need be her tits to foil would-be attackers until she could get away and hide behind police or holy ground. Lydia persuaded her to at least come train with her machete a little. She checked with Genevieve for permission to use the ninja ballroom to train.

After some exchanges where Nalla won a little and Lydia won some more, Lydia had a heart to heart to explain how protecting longevity through doing better with swords was important. She underscored her point when she gave the katana she inherited from the immortal to Nalla, who was flabbergasted by such a fine gift, and somewhat shamed into trying to do better.

Day in the Life

Genevieve was at work with the Recon Teams and she saw the new armor rolling out for agents who work side by side with GAT bots; matte black plastic with a skull face and retractable wrist blades, pretty sweet stuff. She got a call from her butler that a monkey wanted to talk to her.

She went home to talk to the monkey, who dragged a dry erase board in and wrote on it to converse. The monkey was mind controlled by Shrimpshell, who wanted to talk to Genevieve to see if they were going to have a problem. (It was annoying that Genevieve was tearing through her cypher defenses to identify her. Shrimpshell was a meta capable of mind control, so she was using the monkey as a sock puppet.)

In exchange for keeping the secrets Geneveive learned about her, Shrimpshell offered information that the Christmas hit on the Luddite was sponsored by Weyland Incorporated. They parted somewhat neutral.

New Houseguest

Kinslton found Lucille on the porch; Alpha Wolf told her where he lived, and she came to visit. Her place burned down and she needed a place to crash for one night. She was in awe of his place, and his butler, and his fresh and real Miracle Whip, and later she played the piano while Burr was napping (she claimed to have been a piano tuner once.)

He gave her some rules. Stay out of the basement, stay out of the attic, and no playing the piano if anyone else (except Carruthers) is home.

That Symbol

The one in the gross notebook was an effort to pin down the shifting visual glyph like what the GAT bot pictures found, that Kinslton brought to Adrian. Using her puzzle skill and looking at the 25 pictures, Burr narrowed it down to 6 of the runes that this one might be; the ones in the picture would not be accurate either, after all.

Meanwhile, Kinslton and Genevieve did some research and found out that Zakoth was in one of the European witch hammer books of monsters, an old threat (probably a vampire) in Western Europe 300 years ago. (After the research, Lucille jumped Kinslton on the sturdy library table while Burr was elsewhere.)

Genevieve and Adrian took the Zakoth information to the Veil and looked it up in reference to the Enigmist, an arcanist who worked with the Ghost.

They found that the Enigmist once partnered for a couple years with Spiderjewel, a Shadow. She had the Oathbound, a network of agents. The Ghost did not trust her, so the Enigmist was the go-between and he vouched for her. He created the symbols that the GAT bots found, for the Spiderjewel and her agents.

In 1968 the city defenders encountered the Luminarians, agents of Zakoth the Subterranean. The Luminarians had a reliquary with some “active blood” of Zakoth’s, they were part of a larger effort to conduct a ritual or something. The Enigmist and Spiderjewel thwarted the Luminarians (most of whom were not vampires) and took the reliquary, hiding it away behind one of the sigils.

Genevieve pursued it further, seeing that the next year there was a falling out between the Enigmist and the Spiderjewel, and the shadow died somehow; the scanned in typed pages were not always cross-referenced very well, and she decided not to keep after it.

Genevieve checked the camera feed for what the Ghost was up to and saw him ambush a ninja, rip off its head covering and then its face skin, and jam some kind of spike into one of its robotic eyes to download information to the Veil.

Then they researched Weyland Inc. The CEO is Dr. Lance, a physicist. Their tagline was “Cleaner, Safer, Brighter.” The company was into alternative energy and cutting-edge battery technology, with solar farms and kite farms and wave farms all harvesting energy, and a deep sea facility powered by waves. They bought the Yutani “energy harmonics” division for 7 billion, including an underground facility in St. Louis that in fact does extend under the St. Louis Arch.

About that point, a cute woman dressed only in a man’s dress shirt wandered sleepily in, and was startled to not find the Ghost; she retreated fast back into the Mausoleum. Genevieve and Adrian used her shaman powers to leave as well.

Social Times with Indigo

Kinslton went with Lydia to meet Indigo, who was playing sad music to casino losers in Besquelle. They went to the Oyster Bar and he played music while they enjoyed the scene. At one point Kinslton told him Kennedov was upset with Indigo focusing on one food source, but Indigo shrugged that off and continued to do his own thing. Later, Indigo and Lydia teleported out, and Kinslton went home.

As Indigo was feeding from Lydia in the privacy of his loft, he murmured “Tchulza” and explained it meant “Chosen” in another language.

Back at the Brownstone

Alpha Wolf dropped by just to get loaded up on stories of inappropriate things Lucille did in the brownstone, which he found hilarious, and rushed back to the Leaky Gasket to retell. Burr told him what had been going on, from the Miracle Whip to the piano and some of the silly things Lucille was up to. As she headed off to nap she spotted Lucille lurking in earshot.

Painting

At one point in there Adrian went home and visited his wife, who was in her underwear painting something abstract; Adrian saw in it the Hyades cluster with one star prominent, and the pattern like high-speed travel through the Umbra. Nice work, dear, and he was off to play with his friends.

At work with the Recon Teams, Genevieve finds out about Silas Monty, an agent who was picked up in the wee hours wandering the streets out of his head with paranoia and hallucinations. Kinslton and Genevieve track him back to an Irish bar, where they find he was with a pale woman in the bathroom before he went out of his head and left. A barfly soaks them for a little more money to find out that the woman was questioning him about symbols, and Monty gave up Kinslton’s name. They get a picture of her. Apparently if she looks a victim in the eye she can provoke madness.

She stole a car that was left in a theater parking lot near Feducci’s, and Adrian joins them. Lydia comes for lunch too. They find that Lipless, an information broker, told her that the local wizard that Kinslton might consult for magical things would be Adrian.

Cross referencing some rust found in the bar and some cargo containers in the junkyard by Feducci’s and the nearby abandoned car, they found some cargo containers and located some boobytraps and escape tunnels where the vampire was lairing.

While it was day, they breached the container and Lydia used her powers to immobilize the vampire, and they told her to leave town. Then they left, with Adrian and Burr watching over the site.

After sundown, the vampire left, and they followed her to a motel dozens of miles out of town, off the beaten track, where a vampire pack had killed everyone and taken the place over. Upset that the vampire scout Frostvein had not succeeded in her mission, the leader of the vampires shot her in the head with a shotgun and went inside; she unsteadily followed. Burr and Adrian resolved to keep an eye on the situation.

Ninja Trap

The Ghost contacted Lydia and asked her to take charge of a mission to capture Tarasuko, a dangerous zen archer ninja. He had her location, and wanted Lydia to pull in whatever help she wanted so they could get her. Lydia invited Burninator, who figured he had time but had somewhere to be afterwards, as well as Genevieve, Anna, and Kinslton.

Turns out Tarasuko was a high-end car salesperson with Murad Motors, with other ninja also in sales with her. As she left work, they ambushed her; Wraith opened a gate to the stun grenade trap in the Mausoleum, and Kinslton rushed her into it in his giant bird attack form. Tarasuko shrugged off the stun grenades that fried Tarasuko. Job well done.

Vigil

Afterwards, Burninator, Wraith, Genevieve, and Anna went to the Halloway Yacht Club where Tidelia was deep underwater holding vigil on the two year anniversary of the Regatta Massacre where she killed dozens of people.

Kinslton rose early and went to the Leaky Gasket, where he found Lucille, hung over sleeping on a pool table. He took her to brunch at a greasy spoon, where she gave him a diamond tie pin as a present, and recopied the Templar manifesto and oath onto a back sheet from the phone book so he would have it for reference. They agreed to rendezvous later at the Leaky Gasket to go have sex on the roof of the Edgarton Museum of Natural History. Kinslton headed off to work.

Genevieve was also at work in Precinct 13, monitoring the gat bot lines at the protest in Fortress Square (protesting gat bots. Some protesters put paper hearts on gat bot chests. They had a tailgaiting lunch, too.)

At Lydia’s bookstore, they had Valentine themed coffee, poetry books, and so on for the last-minute shopper, so it was a pretty busy day.

Adrian went with his wife Emma all over town, buying antiques and trying out odd restaurants and seeing an avante-guarde play about the engine of modern progress. The most excitement was when some ninja attacked an armored car, but Burninator was on the scene to thwart them. Afterwards, he had a pleasant evening at home.

After work, Genevieve was met by Graves, with disguises. They had a carnal encounter in their traditional elevator in Fortress Square, and were escorted out by security and warned they’d be sued if they did that again. They failed to quake in fear at the idea.

Lydia left work and followed a trail of roses to a romantic rooftop dinner followed by snuggling with Indigo, and sharing blood.

Fetch

Burr worked out and caught up on her reading. Just another day. Then Mr. Fetch visited, and chatted with her a bit, and waited for Kinslton to get home. When he did, Fetch pointed out Kennedov was interested in how Indigo was doing, and would like an update for lunch tomorrow; Kinslton agreed, and tried to figure out how to find the elusive vampire he was supposed to be friends with and keeping tabs on.

He took Lucille to a number of Besquelle nightclubs, and they indulged themselves in various semi-private places. He decided he wasn’t going to find Indigo that way, so he reluctantly sent an Inspecter text to Lyida and Genevieve.

When Genevieve got out of her bath, she telepathically located Lydia and let Kinslton know. He left Lucille and flew to that rooftop, not to spy but to check in when the party was over. Of course Lydia teleported them out of there directly, unaware of his presence, so he gave up and flew home.

In the predawn hour, everyone got a text that the Gray Ghost wanted to meet them the following midnight in the Justice Dome.

Lunch with Kennedov

The next day Kinslton flew to Kennedov’s island, and updated the elderly vampire. Kennedov was concerned that Indigo was fixating on one source of exotic blood, and asked Kinslton to make sure that under no circumstances Lydia drank Indigo’s blood. Kinslton agreed. Also, if any other vampires showed up, Kennedov wanted to know about it. No other vampires, Kinslton reported. Then he had a chicken dinner and flew back to the mainland.

The Ghost’s Plan

After a long day, they met the Ghost at midnight in the Justice Dome. The Ghost was different; taller, masculine, different voice. He divied them up into three strike forces to take out a ship in international waters. Sabotage it, and have the Recon Teams handy to rescue those who jumped out or were arrested.

They headed out on Swashbuckler’s ship, except Tidelia took Adrian and Burninator underwater with dolphins. Once at the site, the longboat approached the container ship, and was spotted. Burninator and Adrian shot holes in the front hull, while Tidelia wrecked the engines, the Gray Ghost disarmed the inevitable self-destruct mechanism, and Genevieve led the group that boarded to get as much intel as possible. Wraith (Lydia) teleported them over, and they fought with ninja as Genevieve got below decks and saw an argument over whether or not to wake up the cargo, in massive coffin-like bins all down the belowdecks storage.

Four of the creatures were woken, and they were awful alien predator things. Genevieve navigated the Japanese language issues as she grabbed as much data into a laptop as she could, and Ana picked up as much physical evidence as possible, while Burr provided security. Genevieve used her bauble to illuminate one of the monsters; it was horrible, and they were killing the ninja.

Shadow Creeper insisted they blow it up, she faced one of these in South Settler. They all agreed, the Ghost triggered the self-destruct countdown, and everyone fled the boat one way or another as it went down and blew up. Adrian and Burninator faced a couple swimming monsters, and Adrian blew one up as Tidelia sent sharks after the other one.

A speedboat tried to escape, and Hammerhand was on it, but someone on the boat threw a starfish on his face and knocked him out; Kinslton had to rescue him. They used GAT bots with flotation devices as scanning nodes, and found all the ninja in the waters, recovering them.

Once the Recon Teams got back to land, they processed the ninja; the half that were wanted by INTERPOL were shipped off, a few of the others had local warrants, and the rest were temporarily held for terrorism, until the recovered intelligence could be interpreted to suggest what they might be guilty of attempting to do with their endless freezer cases, a monster army.

Burr got back from her mission with the Order in Chicago that involved driving for the group that was hitting vampires. She rendezvoused with the Templar in the Leaky Gasket and got caught up on current events, and she got in on the pre-party-party where Alpha Wolf got his people a little lubricated with alcohol so they could be cool and relaxed and on good behavior at the party. Then she rode along as they headed to a 1:00 p.m. party in a warehouse in Torpedo Bay.

Turns out Genevieve’s investigative group purchased this industrial-zoned abandoned warehouse for the cost of back taxes, while it was still a notch above condemned. It was built to house fabrics, bought and refitted to handle a variety of storage needs, then sold to a group that used it for shipping containers, then abandoned when they went out of business. Now it would be the shell for a training company (because of zoning issues) targeting the Chauncey clan as a social space.

The Chauncies and Templar showed up, bringing amps and such as well as an old black and white film projector and a damn good popcorn maker and a gas generator so all that would work. They found standing water in the basement to fight in, and a stretch of blighted concrete where they could race for vehicle titles. (Burr did quite well racing, but declined to continue as the stakes ramped up.)

Genevieve and Lydia brought a massive 24 foot sub using Gate, as well as other party favors, and all that food was devoured.

The Game

Eventually the atmosphere was too rowdy for Lydia, and when she took a break on the roof she noticed someone sitting in a rental car a couple blocks away watching them.

Lydia told Genevieve, who psychically coordinated the effort to sneak up for a better look. She ninja crept towards the car and saw the man inside, and saw he had binoculars and what looked like a remote detonator. When Lydia teleported into the alley for backup, the man scrambled out of his car, and she felt a disorienting rush from him.

Genevieve shot him in the wrist so he couldn’t use the detonator, and they questioned him. Turns out he was an immortal named Nicholas Sykes (most recent name, anyway) and he had a hostage. The remote was to notify his assistant to do something to the hostage, and he had it to keep his real target, Douglas Singleton, another immortal, civil. (Sykes did not want to fight Singleton.)

Singleton killed someone Sykes cared about, and Sykes was out for revenge, but first he wanted to talk to Singleton. Sykes heard that Singleton would be nearby to go after a young immortal, Nalla, so Sykes was staking this party out looking for his enemy.

Genevieve healed up his wrist, and Adrian used his enhanced senses to find where Singleton was on the roof of the Regent hotel (also abandoned) two blocks away, watching the party with a sniper rifle.

Genevieve jumped into Singleton’s creepy murderous head and told him to get out of town. He agreed, wary of crossing the meta community. Kinslton, in crow form, watched him pack up his rifle and leave in one of his pre-arranged escape vehicles, following him until Singleton made a call from a diner in Uptown where he said that he was unable to take out the target and now he wasn’t sure how he would get Heath back. Kinslton followed him past the northern border, where Singleton picked up some cases of tech he couldn’t bring into Edge City, all the way to his motel in Dencentrael.

Then Genevieve told Sykes there would be no confrontation, and the immortal left. Concerned about what this could mean for Nalla, they took the drunk immortal to Favian Church and explained the situation to Fr. Abrams, who would protect her.

Lydia, feeling the nudge of displeasure from the echo of the immortal she once absorbed when she found out Nalla didn’t think much of the need to learn sword play, resolved to try and help her. Amy warned her against getting emotionally involved for the wrong reasons, and asked her about what she was doing to further her long-term goals, hinting that Amy had goals of her own that she didn’t share. After that odd pep talk, Amy headed off home.

Genevieve updated the Ghost on the evening’s events via text, and Adrian also noted he wanted to talk to the Ghost, so Genevieve included that in her update.

Smacking Ninja

Meanwhile the party fell apart as darkness approached, and Kinslton rode forth with Alpha Wolf to mess with the “Rising Dragon” ninja crime wave of heroin and machine guns. First Alpha Wolf cruised by a couple drug hangouts, identifying that each had a supervising ninja playing it cool. Then they attacked a couple locations, throwing motorcycles at ninja or beating on them to chase them off.

The evening climaxed when they hit a counting room full of drugs and money, which Alpha Wolf knew he wasn’t allowed to take; so he set it all on fire, and they discovered there were some munitions stored there too as they retreated from the fireball that turned the location into a crater.

Back to the Leaky Gasket for drinking and bragging, and eventually off home.

Late Night with Adrian

Before sunrise, the Ghost slipped through the defenses and met with Adrian. He showed her the city map he had laid out downstairs in the basement, with all the arcanist glyphs marked, and she agreed that was interesting. The Enigmist once worked with an order and his apprentices to try and set up a more formalized protection of the city, but it… didn’t work out. She authorized him to check on it in the Veil if he wanted.

Then she had a frank discussion with him, tossing a blessed coin that singed his hand. She was concerned that he had the touch of Hell, because it was always corrupting in the end. And she was concerned about Kinslton. And Lydia. She asked Adrian to think it over and get back to her on whether or not this corruption could be shed, or whether or not they even wanted to; she was far more trusting and open than some of her predecessors, but frankly she was feeling worried at the amount of corruption in her inner circle. He explained why he needed his, and agreed to think it over, and she left.

Sunday, February 13

Kinslton told Burr about what he learned following Singleton, then he got on with his day.

Meanwhile, Lydia got lunch supplies and joined Nalla and Abrams at Favian Church after mass. Nalla explained she planned to shoot enemy immortals and run, or kill them while they were down; her immortal blade was a machete. Still, she grudgingly agreed to train with Lydia.

In the wee hours of the night, Lydia found Indigo in the crow’s nest over one of the casinos, playing a duel between his guitar and the shining of the moon. Apparently a vampire named Frostvein was in town, and if you look into her eyes you get some crazy ideas; he knew it wasn’t sane for him to play against the moon, but he was compelled all the same. So they refrained from swapping blood or anything that night, to make sure Lydia wasn’t compromised by strange ideas in turn.

Kinslton Joins the Recon Teams

While Genevieve and Anna put in their time in Precinct 13, monitoring and investigating, Kinslton decided to join the Recon Teams too. He strolled up to the front gate, and since he wanted to bypass the HR phase, he claimed to be a meta and used magic to slice something in half. The front desk called Victor, who was delighted to rush Kinslton through the process and give him a significant position.

As Kinslton got his new office and his intern Jen, he also gained access to some mysteries since he offered his arcane knowledge and lore as his primary qualification. Victor gave him a file of strange symbols, glyphs maybe, that had been found when teams combed through gat bot video streams. There were about 30 or so. Kinslton recognized they were some variation on arcanist symbols, and decided to show them to Adrian later.

Kinslton also got in on an afternoon session where Dr. Williams would be stress-testing Tanya Weller, the teenage mutant, by hitting her forcefully with things and seeing what her quantum barrier could withstand. Genevieve and Anna were also there for the testing, ready to call it off. After what seemed like a maybe reckless level of abuse, the testing was over for the day, and she got to go have ice cream with her brother. During the whole process, the doctor got to thinking what she might use as a callsign; prompted to ask her, they found she was thinking about “Solar Flare.”

Visiting the Glen

Kryptma suggested it would be helpful for her to collect some spirits from the Glen for her fight with Dewpetal. Kryptma and Genevieve recruited Lydia to help get to the Glen, a cairn space that had its moonbridge closed and sealed off. The three of them went to the filled-in pool that used to be the access point, and Lydia teleported them into the Umbra from there. They navigated to a back cave, and Kryptma led the way to climb up through a crack into the Glen the back way.

They met a massive powerful spirit, Mother Wolf, and her mostly grown pups. Kryptma went off on her own, and Genevieve played with the young wolves, leaving Lydia to talk to Mother Wolf.

Mother Wolf nipped Lydia’s Beast out, and it was personified in this place, running around wilting the greenery. Then Mother Wolf asked Lydia to go down into a pool; when she did, all the warpstone taint was pulled out of her, and she could barely get free of the pool. Now she was insubstantial, hardly real, without those two sources of corruption and power. Mother Wolf told her to go to the graveyard and bring back what she found on the altar.

Lydia climbed the rocky path to the graveyard, and saw a skull on an altar. She picked it up, and it melded with her, making her real. It was the skull of the first mortal whose imagination served as the foundation for the energies of the cairn, choosing its form as the Glen. As soon as she absorbed that bone, the whole Glen began to shift.

Lydia climbed back down into the pool, and all the corruption and power flowed back into her. One of the wolves managed to catch the little Beast and toss it back into her, so she had all the power she brought, plus the strange skull in her. Kryptma seemed self-satisfied.

Now that Lydia had been in this place, she could return with her dimensional teleportation, so the visitors returned to Prime, not sure they’d ever see Mother Wolf or the young wolves again now that the cairn’s shape was already shifting to match its new subject’s subconscious.

Raiding the Water Treatment Plant

During the day, Adrian contacted Lady Catherine and asked about moon bridge experts, and she referred him to Dr. Alex Timber, a moon bridge specialist rejected by the academic community for things like painting a conference room in woad and running around nude yelling gibberish while painting participants. Adrian thought that sounded like a solid lead.

Later, Adrian rendezvoused at Favian Manor for the night raid. There he met Kinslton, who shared with him the pictures of the arcanist symbols. Adrian saw that they were a dialect, maybe from an order of Arcanists, and their meaning might shift depending on who viewed them as they could be keyed to individuals or objects. Very interesting!

After supper, Kinslton led Genevieve, Anna, Lydia, Kryptma, Morris, and Adrian through the labyrinthine spaces under Torpedo Bay towards a water treatment plant. They eventually arrived, and Dewpetal re-corporated herself, rising above the filthy water. Kryptma fought her, and a gelatinous worm monster crawled out of the tank, so Adrian and Lydia wiped it out. Another shaman showed up to interfere, and Morris countered it; the shaman was put down only to reveal empty clothes. Once Dewpetal was proper kicked in and destroyed, they turned their attention to the warpstone.

A fist-sized chunk of warpstone was set in the wall, surrounded by markings. It was trying to corrupt this place, which was already filthy with bane energies; why the effort? The warpstone corruption ritual pointed to the ceiling, and they investigated to find that the chamber was older than the modern-ish construction, and on the roof of the cave was a symbol carved into the stone, so deep you could put your hand into the carving. The symbol matched the last mysterious moon bridge coordinate!

They took the 3 point chunk of warpstone when they left, and Kinslton put it in a lead box in his brownstone mansion.

Kinslton figured out his demonic half-raven stalker form, and went to the Leaky Gasket to celebrate with the Templar. He found Alpha Wolf in a foul mood, grudgingly telling a version of the story of what happened in the confrontation with Steve Thunder. Kinslton also healed up Lucille, who was battered by GAT bots; she wants to go on a date with him now.

The Tower

Meanwhile, across town, Genevieve was working with Eudora and the investigative team to watch the government auction of Torpedo Bay properties for the cost of back taxes. Then Adrian visited, inviting her to go with him to the Midway. They went not just for the wintery carnival atmosphere, but to go into a dingy basement where there was an enduring chalk gate to Marcher’s Tower.

Together they entered the tower, noting the big throne festooned with antlers, all the chests and boxes and knick knacks. They found a vampire, withered and stuffed in a grandfather clock built into the back of the throne. They found a snake-head cane with ruby eyes and a snakeskin wrap. They found a box of gems that glittered, tempting to Arcanist magic, probably granting power to objects once they were set in place and activated.

Genevieve found four shamanistic power stabilizing columns, and traced them to realize if you dragged the bearskin rug out of the way and sat in the throne you could use Essence to waken the portal in the floor, which showed a central location and four supporting cairns. It was a nexus, where five cairn spaces connected via moonbridge!

The central symbol was for the Glade, where Mother Wolf presides, that used to connect to the pool by the cabin behind Old Man Marcher’s place. Another symbol matched an ancient carving spotted in the basement of Kennedov’s mansion on the island. Another could connect to the Favians—could it be related to the manor? (Later, Morris identified one as matching the cairn space the Pennywise mansion was built to protect.) Only one remained a mystery.

They returned to Prime, and headed to Tolliver Road, where they went to the book store and chatted with Lydia. Adrian put in an order for books that could tell him more about moon bridges, a shamanistic phenomenon that deals with connecting cairns and otherdimensional spaces, and connecting those spaces with each other in turn.

Roachsplosion

Genevieve and Anna were called away on Recon Team business, going to Dr. Ellisario’s home. She died in her house clothes, watching television, ruptured from the inside by an impossibly dense press of roaches that now slithered all through the house. Disgusted, Victor let Genevieve look over the scene and find out what she could.

She determined that the intruder was either known to the victim or very sneaky, not alarming the victim. The roaches were from a certain area under Torpedo Bay, altered somewhat by chemicals to be recognizably distinct. Genevieve looked back in time to see Dewpetal regrow her face to talk with her out of synch, as though they had met before. Dewpetal promised to kill her. Then she escaped by falling apart into a pile of roaches that swarmed elsewhere.

Genevieve watched the one-sided conversation of the apparently time-sensitive bane shamen on the security camera footage. She inspected the corpse and pulled out some infant vertebrae that were loaded with power so eventually the body would rise, undead; Genevieve pocketed that bit of evidence. She figured she had what she needed, so she left the Recon Team to clean up their former head scientist of meta studies, and she went to rejoin her friends.

A Nice Supper

Meanwhile Kinslton had joined Adrian and Lydia at the bookstore, and he got their version of events with Steve Thunder. They all went out to eat at the high-end revolving restaurant overlooking Fortress Square, having a lovely time with witty conversation.

Pillars of the Community

Kinslton wanted to contact Pillars to see if she could help him tune his senses to track bane spirits. He had her number on a card, and while it sounded like he was interrupting something intimate, she was happy to meet him by the arcology in Torpedo Bay.

She gave him a lingering grindy kiss, where she rubbed some of her taste buds off in his mouth. In exchange for giving him a “taste for bane” she got the infant vertebrata full of bane energies from Genevieve. Now Kinslton could track Dewpetal by taste/scent.

Genevieve and Anna joined them there, and after eating, everyone headed to the Parlor of Relative Safety, where they called in Morris and Kryptma.

The Parlor of Relative Safety

Kryptma had apparently been sleeping, but even in her grouchy state she helped pinpoint where Dewpetal might be resting; a water treatment station under Torpedo Bay, where she was likely going into the bane-friendly waters to help keep her body together.

Lydia felt an odd pull to emotionally hurt Morris, and resisted it. She told him that Kryptma was interested in him, and he didn’t believe her, since he sees Kryptma as being confrontational and unpleasant.

With two shamen willing to go along and help out, they got their affairs in order so they could assault the water treatment plant under Torpedo Bay the next day, and put a stop to Dewpetal once and for all.

She dug into Shrimpshell hard, and found out that it was someone who was thought to be dead. Through various Interpol and other means, she started looking where no one else had, after running across some vague references murmured by a telepath. She discovered that Lanette Rider was likely the force behind Shrimpshell. She was supposed to have died by sniper bullet in South America in 2005. Digging into her history further, Genevieve discovered Rider’s powers developed as young as 8, when she was able to do a psychic blast affecting multiple targets. Scientists demanded she kill a frog with her brain, and she killed the scientists instead. That began a long history of liking animals better than humans. Her powers developed to psychic intrusion and possession, at least, before she faked her death in 2005. Is she a new player in the League of Progress?

Genevieve also tried and failed to use her money and contacts, and her husband’s money and contacts, to start “Walk It Off,” a gym compound for Chauncies. Too much bureaucracy. Even the Chaise Corporation couldn’t help.

Lydia

Wraith continued working with the police, bolstering her relationships there as a vigilante. She also continued drinking Indigo’s blood, and now feels that they are impossibly close friends. This supernatural bolstering toughened her body, also.

Lydia tried fencing with Emma, Adrian’s wife, and defeated her handily. That led to some social awkwardness, as Emma remains very proud of her achievements as a fencer on the amateur circuit.

Adrian

He worked with Five Stones as a local guide, able to protect (and defend himself from) various “interesting” visitors. He also spent more time with his friends, playing catch with Mugsy (it was Mugsy’s idea, and it is not in any way like playing fetch.) He also used his new appearance altering abilities to assume a different face, so he could take Olivia out in public and be seen with her without risking Adrian’s reputation.

Burr

Loup de Loup was very excited to get tickets to the Grindbox concert. In exchange for tickets and going to the show with him, he recommended Burr to one of the best drivers on the East Coast, “Grasshopper.” Grasshopper drives trucks and big vehicles, and she taught Burr the finer points of how to open and close city access points with heavy steel.

She also met with Ironface, who helped her build endurance using his gyrobike by a wall of tvs.

Grindbox Concert

Burr went to the Leaky Gasket before the concert to hang out with the Templar. There she found that Alpha Wolf and the Templar were going to attack Steve Thunder, the lead singer of Grindbox, by stealing his tour bus then assaulting him while attention was elsewhere. Turns out Steve Thunder is a powerful werewolf who was forbidden from coming to the city when the Chauncies were powerful enough to enforce their will.

Victor invited Genevieve (and therefore Anna) to the Grindbox concert, because he was curious about it.

The opening act was Audial Assault, with a Fallout post-apocalyptic vibe. As they all enjoyed the Grindbox show, with Darla Smiles on drums and Casey Lorbok on guitar, they discovered that the highlight of the show were the times when Steve Thunder would scream, and a supernatural intimidation and fear would suffuse the audience.

After the concert, there was some modest rioting, and in the confusion Lucille (the most belligerent Templar) stole the tour bus and was immediately apprehended by GAT bots. Burr warned Genevieve about what was going to go down, so Genevieve contacted Lydia, who picked up Adrian and Mugsy to come help out.

Meanwhile, Alpha Wolf drove a VW Bug into Thunder, who tossed it out of the way. Mugsy turned into a giant mastiff and kept Alpha Wolf busy as the rest of the group confronted Thunder, who shrunk back down to human size and tried to charm them with his plan to stay in the city and found a recording studio, Stormkloud, and start his new project, Ragetemple.

The group presented a united front with no room for ambiguity and told him to get out of town and never come back. He reluctantly withdrew (and did not press charges against Lucille.)

Kingsport

Early the next morning Adrian got two things; an exotic fruit and cheese basket from Graves, who apparently approved of the poor treatment of another werewolf, and a telegram from W. Exmoor inviting him to a meeting in the Kingsport historical society at 2 p.m. Adrian contacted Lydia to see if she would be willing to transport him.

That afternoon as they teleported to Kingsport, they closed in on the meeting location. Lydia had a strange moment of dislocation and starvation as something in her wanted to absorb the essence of a peculiar woman in the crowd who appeared momentarily uncomfortable. Lydia saw her drop something, and caught up to return it to her, learning that the woman’s name was Cassie Wilts, and she was an artist. (Of COURSE she was an artist.)

They met with Marcher, who released Adrian from his apprenticeship, declaring him an official Weapon of Destiny and giving him the Brindalyn plate armor as a gift. And he has his tattoo from the Left Hand of God, which was apparently part of this, and he got a point of Fate.

Marcher also told him that Olivia would die in his defense, someday, whether Adrian frees her or not.

Marcher also claimed to have met Lydia before, but she has no memory of that.

Lydia continued her vigilante activities in South Midtown, encountering a gang called the “Jacknives” led by “Jack the Knife.” They were driven out of Torpedo Bay and looking to set up shop in Midtown with petty extortion, muggings, and general thuggery.

Lydia consulted with Burninator to see if he knew of trustworthy cops in Midtown so she could begin to build a relationship with the authorities. Burninator recommended Patrick Donnelly. (He also reported that Tarasuko is still with the Dusk Clan and instrumental in the “Rise of the Dragon” nonsense going on in Torpedo Bay. A shadow demon is being used to evict rivals, and Tarasuko is passing messages on magically suborned hummingbirds.)

Lydia got Donnelly’s badge number from Genevieve, and later contacted him, putting the suspect he was pursuing up on a lamppost while they had a chat. Donnelly was very willing to partner with her to take on crime, and after he dropped off his suspect at the station he took her downstairs and showed her the old interrogation rooms they didn’t use anymore. They agreed that if she dropped someone in an interrogation room, she could call in to the front desk with a coded message for him, and he would know to go book the suspect.

James, the TALON

Meanwhile, Kinslton continued roaring around with Alpha Wolf and the Templar. Their territory was turbulent as displaced gangs fought for a narrower strip of territory. Alpha Wolf was strangely insistent on pointing out that his victims lived; Kinslton wasn’t sure why until he was visited at home by the Ghost, who had a heart to heart with him warning him about getting too complacent about the choice to kill. Kinslton defended his decision, pointing out the wanton destruction coming out of SANTA. The Ghost didn’t really answer those points, and instead left Kinslton to his thoughts. She did note that Alpha Wolf stubbornly declared to her that if Kinslton was kicked out, he would go too.

Genevieve

Genevieve dug into the records to try and track where those meta bounty hunters came from. She used the Veil and her INTERPOL contacts to discover that they must have come in on a container ship from Benton. Cross referencing and sifting impossibly huge masses of illegally obtained data, she traced how the various metas probably traveled to Benton, and she connected those arrangements with a tiny offshore tech company called Shripshell.

Shrimpshell seemed a heavily defended company that offered security tech services to multinational corporations. Many investigations headed by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies failed to penetrate it; the tiny company could swagger as it forced agents to retire, arranged accidents for the persistent, and otherwise manipulated laws to crush efforts to get a look into it.

Genevieve followed up with the Ghost, who confirmed that the company came down to one person, a person with unknown identity, who was a broker for metas. Sufficiently connected metas could use Shrimpshell as a matchmaker, connecting their talent with high-end mercenary work.

The Ghost also informed Genevieve that her prior concerns that Anna had tracking hardware or contingency programming were laid to rest now that the chassis was so violently different, and the positronic network had been transformed through use to a different configuration altogether. Anna was now considered a person, and was allowed to visit the Mausoleum without the precautions they used to take.

Meanwhile Anna looked into the known IAGO units and the scientists that had the capability to work on them, compiling dossiers.

Adrian, MISTERMYSTERY

Adrian’s energies were pretty fully absorbed in channeling the Brotherhood of the Road’s enthusiasm in relatively harmless directions during the holiday season.

Burr, VALKYRIEJONES

She was called back by her Order to help out with a smash-and-grab monster kidnapping case in Iowa over the holidays. A vampire, Jerome of Ames, a major player in human trafficking for feeding populations.

New Year’s Eve Party, 2010

They gathered at Favian Manor, though there was some temptation to work that night. Thousands gathered in Fortress Square, under the protective eye of the Reconstruction Agent, piles of security, Burninator, and Tidelia. (Tidelia telepathically contacted Genevieve to share the moment as she stood with Burninator in the wreckage of the Wilters museum overlooking the festivities with beverages; she felt things would soon change forever.) There were televised speeches from the Mayor, Commissioner Felton, and others.

Genevieve invited Alpha Wolf and the Templar. They had a grand time, drinking and playing around on the ninja training course in the ballroom with limited success. A bright new member, Lucille, helped Alpha Wolf express disdain without taking responsibility. (Flipping the bird? Okay. Mooning? Too far, Lucille.) Kinslton and Alpha Wolf even tried brosmashing champagne flutes on their faces.

Lydia brought Indigo, which discomfited Morris, as he was hoping to get to know Lydia better and realized Indigo was a pretty tough romantic rival. This annoyed Kryptma, who was sort of crushing on Morris, but she pretended nothing was wrong.

Indigo took Lydia up to the corner net in the ballroom and for the first time let her drink his blood; it was a strange experience for her. He said he was ready to share his life with her, and he would want to share his blood again.

Meanwhile, Genevieve showed up the Templar by running the obstacle course better than they could. Also, Graves and Echran dropped by, and Graves coolly regarded the werewolves, irritating and unsettling them as he established his dominance and was ever so slightly possessive of Genevieve, before sauntering out and leaving them to their party.

A policeman stopped by, a beat cop from Foscoe Gardens who was a member of the far-flung Chauncy clan, named Guy Berman. He told Genevieve there was a darkshell loose in Foscoe Gardens, probably released or antagonized by underground construction, and there were disappearances. He gave her a map and hoped she could help, then excused himself and left.

The Ball Drop

The ball dropped in Fortress Square, but dropped too soon and blew up halfway down. This didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd.

Some time later, the Recon Agent (Victor) showed up in poor shape. He pulled the Inspectors aside (except for Anna, who babysat the Templar.) In the sky above Fortress Square, there was a hooded figure, who hit him with a mountain and avalanche, then lightning. He wasn’t quite sure how to describe how he fought these forces, or what they were like. The figure bragged the ball would kill everyone, so he raced down and detonated it prematurely.

The shamen in the group immediately recognized the bane stink all over him; thousands of bane spirits attacked him and wilted in his quantum furnace, but they would have made a mess of the crowds below. (They had been bound to the individual firecrackers in long strings wound around the inside of the massive ball for the drop.)

Morris won a bet with Kryptma by pulling all the bane taint off of Victor in a masterful action, and condensing it so it could be thrown out the window to dissolve elsewhere. They knew who the culprit had to be; Dewpetal, a shaman involved in the banewar to the south who fell and was assumed killed.

Instead, it was more likely that the bane spirits that were trapped by the barrier stuffed themselves into her, and tore loose of the containment to come here, bringing the Horn of Spots and preparing mass disruption. She escaped, and could be trouble again, if she survived channeling that much energy. It was difficult to guess what her mental condition might be, or how viable her ongoing survival would be with that level of bane invasion.

Victor was pleased to explain that Dr. Chen Ellisario got some strange energy readings that she could cross reference with those from the Horn of Spots incident, so maybe they could start detecting and disrupting this new kind of energy. Victor took his leave.

The shamen in the group didn’t like the idea of the Recon Teams getting science involved in shamen issues. Something might have to be done about that.

Adrian returned from Paris, where he had been negotiating a peace between the Arcanum wizards represented by Krydon and a vampiric consortium led by Velour. With the arcanists seriously depleted by their slaughter at Onaga’s hands, the vampires took over the Parisian core, and the wizards were negotiating access from the river to a row of townhouses in the city core. Adrian could serve as a mediator because both factions had hostile relations with the Brotherhood of the Road, and they counted on Adrian to be neutral.

After some relaxing on the yacht welcoming Adrian home, everyone went their separate ways.

Monday, December 27, 2010

The Recon Teams faced a threat in a four block area in Torpedo Bay where there were 8 incidents that involved suspected meta assault on citizens. There was GAT bot footage of a couple of them, indicating extra limbs and maybe glowing eyes and the ability to scramble up buildings or make prodigious leaps.

Genevieve collected Anna, Adrian, Kinslton, Burr, and Lydia to investigate that evening. She got a tac net with the four local GAT vans, and also made psychic connection between the investigative team.

Testing the Waters

Kinslton flew recon, his demon sight allowing him to see a filmy green energy breathing up from the sewers. He perched to watch a person who had a chip of green glowing in him, a well dressed man chain smoking and watching a GAT bot who was ignoring him. The rest of the team closed in on the man. Genevieve questioned him and got some nonsense about how “they” would gather victims or something, and she determined he didn’t like the GAT bots, and there was a lair of some sort below. She called in a request to have that GAT bot removed, and it left. The man dropped to his belly and slid down a storm drain.

They heard of another incident in the area, a shootout. They arrived to see the GAT bots firing on a man in a suit who was shooting back with pistols. He was blasted to pieces then a Mr. Trashy was used by two of the GAT bots to hammer him down. Genevieve checked him out, finding he was licensed as a bodyguard and had permits for his pistols, but he was also infected just like the other man, and he had a weird mouth-like mutation in his chest.

Expanding the Posse

Seeing it was a shaman issue, she psychically contacted Morris Pennywise, and had Lydia pick him up. She also contacted Blake, of the Shell Clan, to help them navigate the sewers. It was time go after the infection. After twenty minutes or so, Blake showed up. In the meantime, Morris bound snowflake purity spirits into objects for the investigators, so they could not be infected by the energy they sought.

He also recognized the energy as coming from a powerful bane artifact, the Tusk of Spots. Somehow it had been freed from the radioactive wasteland to the south, and come into the city. Those who touched it could be infected, so if it was traveling around there could be a number of gestating fomori bane hybrids.

Underground

Blake led them through the sewers, and they closed in on where the lair was suspected to be, using the abandoned subway tunnels. They came to a roundabout where they saw 7 of the proto-fomori building a display center for the Tusk of Spots.

Lydia managed to pluck a fomori off the wall and bring it over with telekinesis, but it started rapidly shapeshifting and she dropped it, into a moat. The others charged, and while Kinslton intercepted them and let them attack him, Lydia grabbed another.

Morris managed to force the infection to personify, and he used its energy to trace to the source of the infection. Then he tore out the infection with Genevieve’s help, and bound it to a stone instead of a person. The victim was killed by the forcible removal of the bane spirit, but Genevieve managed to save him from death.

Genevieve connected Lydia and Morris’s minds so Lydia could take Morris to the source of the contagion with a teleport. They arrived, confronting a recently infected homeless man. Morris got the Tusk of Spots and disabled it, breaking the connection so the other proto fomori were disrupted and lost their source of energy. They were handily subdued by the investigators, and Blake retrieved the one that fell into the moat.

After

Lydia opened a gate, and the investigators took the victims out to the streets to receive medical care and be processed by the Recon teams. Morris bound the Tusk of Spots so it would not infect anyone else, and he seemed to take a shine to Lydia (who was not particularly interested in the teenager’s advances.)

During a 5 week down time ending on December 22, various things happened.

Kinslton spent time hanging out with Alpha Wolf and Shadow Creeper. He also leveraged his Brotherhood of the Road contacts to train in city knowledge with Sideways Neil, a night-time taxi driver who was into dosing him with psychedelic drugs. He also trained in stealth with Ladder Mike, another Brotherhood contact, who specialized in theft from high rises usually using a window washing rig as the entry point. They played stalking games in abandoned buildings to increase Kinslton’s understanding of how to be stealthy.

Adrian spent time with the Tutor, studying transmogrification. He also spent significant time with Five Stones, and undertook a mission for them to Paris to oversee some diplomacy using his reputation and power to keep things civil. And he tended his other commitments.

Genevieve spent time with the police, and the Recon teams, and Morris. The rest of the time, she studied Dyrnwyn, the bauble, in the light of the Spellbook of Llyr. She discovered she could use the light to raise or lower the Gauntlet by a step. She also discovered the Tower of Llyr, a pocket dimension in the Deep Umbra she could only access through the light of Dyrnwyn. She could return to where she left, or to a designated location. She entered the tower through a hallway, and chose a door with a crane on it, so her tower takes the form of an ancient crumbling dojo and the Tower’s Heart looks like a stone table, and the servants there appear to be monks. Genevieve also trained in subterfuge with the Gray Ghost.

Lydia spent most of her free time away from the bookstore training hard in Dormancy, becoming an expert in five short weeks.

Burr spent time with the Templar and working for the Order. The Templar let her train with Loup de Loup, a famous getaway driver for the Chauncies. He was old and stiff, but still a vicious driver, and he taught her a lot about precision driving. She also trained with Master Dosk, a retired monster hunter with the Order. He taught her further melee combat techniques.

They also learned that Luddite is a new smuggler with the Underground, selling Lights-out-ers bullets that fry any circuitry they hit. Shadow Creeper captured GAT bots and sells them to Luddite, who takes the credit and sells LO rounds to Skiff at $100 a round. The Bounders have been sniping GAT bots in South Settler, frustrating Seertech, who have petitioned to use drones to hunt for the snipers. So far the city has not issued a permit.

Frustrated by the mounting expense of the war on GAT bots and the city’s financial obligations involved in the lost equipment, a police captain issued a $500,000 bounty on Luddite—a rare measure, but one that may become more common. The Gray Ghost will neither help or hinder efforts to stop Luddite. The Ghost does know bounty hunters will make the effort, and that could cause trouble.

The Bertinelli Crime Family has a bounty out for GAT bots, and the best mech hunters are called “cyberhunters” and given special gear. The Bertinellis also repurposed an industrial park in Foscoe Bay and call it the “Crush School” and there they have hands-on training for how to use cars, water, electricity, and construction equipment to stop GAT bots.

Davis Markham has started a movement called PACON, People Against Cybernetic Organism Normalization. Detractors call them the “vibrators.” Markham’s parents were influential proponents of conserving Edge City culture, but they died in the Regatta Massacre. The group is working on legislation to revoke robotics legalization, working within the system. Their points include noting the threat automation of jobs poses to automobile and garment industries, threatening the economic core of the city.

The Dusk Clan is apparently behind the new criminal outfit, the Rising Dragon. The Recon Teams have prioritized infiltrating their leadership and taking out the leaders. The outfit operates in eastern Torpedo Bay and has some friction with the Bertinellis.

*

Wednesday, December 22, 2010. Kinslton and Burr hosted a Christmas party at the brownstone. Indigo came, playing the music for the event. Most of the Inspectors came—all but Swashbuckler (who sent Treasure Chest) and the Ghost. Even Victor dropped by to gift the party with a bottle of wine before returning to his duties.

Alpha Wolf invented the “bro-smashing” of crushing empties against Kinslton’s face while Kinslton did the same to him—their bonding activity. Also, Kinslton’s meta containment dungeon of fun was named the “fungeon.” By the end of the night, they strapped the 7 foot decorated tree to Alpha Wolf’s motorcycle, and he drove it to a halfway house where released convicts can live with their kids, and set it up in their lobby.

Lydia left the party with Indigo, they had a cozy platform over an opera stage to have some quiet time away from it all.

Genevieve and Anna took Mugsy home to enjoy his giant beef stick and wheel of cheese from his boss Adrian. Then they headed to Favian Manor to call it a night.

Kinslton, Burr, and Shadow Creeper decided to check in with Luddite the next evening to see if any bounty hunters showed up.

The next day, Kinslton prepared for the outing by buying Shadow Creeper a horrifically tacky Christmas sweater. When he gave it to her, she tried to say something nice, then absorbed it into her shadows.

Baron’s Pier

Genevieve and Lydia were not interested in this errand, so it was just Burr, Kinslton, and Shadow Creeper closing in on Baron’s Pier the following night. As Kinslton watched over the proceedings, Shadow Creeper took Burr and went into the basement of an abandoned hotel, where she met with an Englishman who bought the GAT bots and laid in credit for Skiff to buy more LO rounds later. Shadow Creeper melted away, and Burr walked out, perching on her bike in a side lot.

Kinslton spotted a strange mini-blimp with sensors, and he took it out with his demon raven claws. Shortly after, a cherry-red armored stretch limo showed up, as did a massive 8 billion dollar war machine power armor suit tricked out to look like a 8 meter tall Santa.

The mech used a mini gun and flamer to lay waste to the hotel’s protections, and three people from the limo strode in to collect Luddite. Meanwhile, Kinslton tangled with Santa, able to resist the minigun and flamer, but desperate once grabbed by the implacable grip. Kinslton fought Santa to a standstill while also trying to protect Burr and stop the limo using a variety of spells. As a last resort, he used the Dread Curse and slew the pilot of the armor.

Meanwhile, as the limo tried to escape and Kinslton tried to stop it, Burr got involved and drove her motorcycle to intercept. Santa gunned her down, injuring her and trashing her bike, but she survived. A mutant got out of the limo and swelled up to 4 meters or so tall, with white fur, basically the Bumble. Kinslton’s shrivelling spell dried it off pretty good but didn’t do any lasting damage.

Burr forced the driver to go by ramming the witchblade through the back of the driver’s seat, and the Bumble chased as Kinslton fought Santa. Eventually the driver fired a gun through the back of the seat, missing Burr, and she stabbed him again, provoking him to stagger off while he still could. The Bumble tore a door off the limo and grabbed her out; badly hurt, she managed to escape and run away, healing up with impossible speed.

They put out a distress call, answered by Lydia (who needed a few minutes to suit up and teleport out there) and Burninator (who would drive as fast as he could, but was some minutes out.) Fortunately, with Santa burst and Kinslton squaring off against the Bumble, Kinslton and the Bumble had a heartfelt conversation about the ennui of it all, and Kinslton let the Bumble slope off into the city.

Lydia arrived, teleporting up to see where the villains might have gone. They apparently left out the back. Burr investigated the limo quickly, finding a short wave radio. They all went into the hotel, finding lots of corpses; they looted some bandoliers of explosives, and saw that the LO rounds had been taken. Kinslton also found Shadow Creeper, who retreated after Mz. Claws impaled her with one hit. Kinslton healed her up. Kinslton herded most of the weapons together and blew them up. Burr and Kinslton each took a Piranha assault rifle.

Burninator arrived, and went with them to pursue the bounty hunters.

They went to the mall, where the retreating bounty hunters took Luddite (his body was not among the fallen.) Kinslton had an exchange with one of the bounty hunters. They followed the trail and found that the bounty hunters escaped, but their prey, the Luddite, had gotten away from them. He was injured, but hiding behind a Mr. Trashy. Kinslton did not heal him up; they took no action regarding him at all, and instead retreated from the battleground.

Shadow Creeper put a big shadow over the power armor to hide it until the Ghost could pick it up, so Burr made her a care package from the less damaged snacks in the limo. Then they called it a night.

We pick up again on Friday, the fifth day of the police strike. Adrian was out managing the Brotherhood of the Road to keep their malfeasance in the midst of the chaos manageable.

Ending the Strike

Captain Blankenship ran the fire department. He pointed at the legal trouble over pension funding irregularities five years ago, that the first responders collectively let slide as long as it was corrected. He offered to have them sign waivers that they could never take action on that irregularity in a class action suit (which was a veiled threat that if the city didn’t play ball, they would be sued for a LOT of money.)

Commissioner Felton did a fantastic job of getting everyone back around the table and keeping them there. The city offered the police a significant increase in pay and funding, and in exchange the police agreed to work with GAT populations Downtown, Gantry, and Torpedo Bay with a streamlined permission process to deploy them elsewhere in the city should the need arise.

Genevieve and Anna were there for the signing of the documents that ended the strike.

Templar

Burr and Kinslton rode with Alpha Wolf on patrols, encountering the Mourner neighborhood watch. They hung out in downtime at the Blown Gasket, it used to be a chop shop but was minimally transformed into a bar.

Both Kinslton and Burr swore the oath and became members of the Templar.

Various Errands

Kinslton tracked Indigo down and spent some time hanging out with him, in the crow’s nest of a casino ship and elsewhere.

He also got authorization to talk to the meta containment team at Precinct 13. He got access to Dr. Chen Ellisario, who showed him the various collars, Kanza burn powder, brain implants, and physical restraints (as well as drug coctails) they used. And, of course, credited the durillium shell that hampered quantum energy so severely. She tried not to be creeped out by his interest in holding a meta as a private citizen.

Lydia (as Wraith) spent some time doing vigilante policing with Tidelia, getting some insight into the peculiar nova’s inner balance and capriciousness.

Burr got to try out her outfit and motorcycle (courtesy of Arsenal Fashions) as Valkyrie Jones.

Meta Brawl

Another Meta Brawl was in the offing at Olde Town, the tickets were $400 each as the strike was now ending. They again met Crossfade, who was making sure they were going to behave themselves. They saw another great match of GAT chess. Brotherhood of the Road provided various sideshow booths, involving more dangerous and advanced variations on traditional carnival games.

The main battle was between Hydra, a big guy with a lot of snake heads and necks, more every time some were lost; and Clobbermatic, an elastic shape-shifting anime geek. Hydra won when Clobbermatic basically swallowed him, and Hydra cut loose with gouts of quantum flame while enclosed.

After a great evening on the town, everyone went home, with hopes of a more orderly city in the morning.

Kinslton was out patrolling with Alpha Wolf while Burr worked with Arsenal Fashions to outfit her new persona.

Patrolling with Burninator

Lydia, in her persona as Wraith, went out with Burninator to stop looting in Leverty. After she stopped some criminals on patrol, they noticed a remarkably engaged neighborhood watch with black armbands, and questioned them some.

Turns out there was a well organized and trained neighborhood watch, called the Mourners. They kept an eye out for crime, and had volunteers with the right protection and temperament that responded to violent crime, as well as a holding area to put offenders before they could be properly imprisoned or released with a warning. Burninator and Wraith did not find out who trained and organized them.

The Ongoing Investigation

Eudora shared her plan with Genevieve: get Felton out of the picture by pretending to be bad guys and capturing him. Then capture illegal IAGO units, and blackmail the city government into funding the cops and ending the strike or else having their illegal tech exposed to the people and sending the top city officials to jail.

Genevieve was not sympathetic to the plan. Eudora tried to work up the courage to propose it to others, like Adrian and Lydia, but didn’t get anywhere. The team as a whole kept looking for some clue or idea in all the paperwork that could persuade the city to meet the demands of the police.

Brotherhood

The next day, Adrian went to the Feduccis to check in with the Brotherhood of the Road, how had an increasingly high quality selection of catering and electronics donated to their lair. One of the locals also showed him to their “Banker Box” where they were abducting bankers who technically did not break the law, or were not prosecuted. However, their actions led to the misery of many, and now they were captured pending a decision about their disposition.

They asked Adrian if they could start one for lawyers, and he agreed that would be good. They figured they’d call it the “Law School.”

The Brotherhood also offered tickets to Meta Brawl in Olde Towne that night, and Adrian bought some tickets at $200 each.

Protest

Fortress Square was full of protesters who were also grilling food while protesting, with the police well represented. The protest was peaceful, with the Reconstruction Agent keeping a watchful eye. Genevieve and Anna walked among the protesters, in Recon Team uniforms, being seen and heard and listening to the people. She saw ninja of the Dusk Clan in the crowd, but they seemed passive and nonthreatening.

Meta Brawl

There were lots of cars in the creepy and usually abandoned area. As a warm-up, gatbots painted black or white and equipped with chainsaw arms and chess piece headgear played a sort of human chess game. Investigating by picking the lead tech’s pocket (then returning his wallet), Genevieve found Jarl Vinterstaag, a native of Benton, was the one running the gatbots.

Crossfade was running security for the event, and checked in to make sure they weren’t there to make trouble; they assured him they just wanted to watch.

The main event was between Growlback, the Growback Guy (a powerful mutant with body weaponry, extreme toughness, and rapid healing) and Steel Skull (a mutant from Detroit who survived a car accident by developing the ability to warp steel into a power armor like body.) There was massive betting, and Steel Skull was doing really well, then Growlback pulled a surprise reversal and defeated him. More fights were promised.

Rumble Strip was a seismic meta attacking the Diamond District, backed up by her costumed baseline Pole Dancers. Reconstruction Agent was struggling to get close, but Kinselton dehydrated her and distracted her, injuring her badly. He also healed her so she did not die. Meanwhile Burr bagged a couple of the Pole Dancers with tasers.

Arrowelle and Exitixe the Red Phantom robbed some jewelry stores on an ultralight motorbike, using teleportation with everyone attuned along to evade capture. Adrian and Lydia checked in with Precinct 13, then Adrian distracted them so they drove into a gate portal Lydia opened so they crashed into the wall and were captured by Recon Teams.

Later, they found that Lurker and some digging lackeys went into the vaults of several banks and removed all the gold there, since the seismic sensors were unreliable due to Rumble Strip’s attacks above. Genevieve suspected the Director’s hand in the clean interlocking of plans.

Genevieve wanted to talk to the mayor, but couldn’t for days, so she went in with the Reconstruction Agent for his chat. She told the mayor to get the cops back on the street, and they had a brief debate about the situation, then he thanked her for her perspective and she left.

Swashbuckler served as the safe middle ground for mob boss James Bertinelli, head of the syndicate, to meet with Genevieve. He just wanted to say his people were trying to help keep order, and he wanted the strike over, and he offered to help. Also he is allied with the Dusk Clan.

Genevieve psychically contacted Ryan and told him he was needed. The conversation ended ambiguously. (That would be Ryan Chaise, the current Gray Ghost’s brother, who was the Gray Ghost for a short time and left town under unpleasant circumstances when his sister assumed the mantle once more.)

Distressed by the reporters focusing on property damage inflicted by metas, Kinslton found a cub reporter (Chris Jenkins, Channel 5) doing a human interest piece on low shopping turnout, and gave her an exclusive interview. He revealed his name was Talon, he showed how he could cut a shopping cart in half WITHHISMIND, and he explained he wasn’t involved in lots of property damage. He also acquiesced to Burr as his sidekick, and named her Valkyrie Jones. He flew away after the interview, changing his shape as the cameraman rolled film.

Genevieve spent some time with the meta siblings on the Recon Teams as they did their homework and stood in reserve for a situation that might need them.

Burr and Kinslton did some more sightseeing in Milan for a day or two, and the others returned on Saturday, November 13. The game started the next day.

Headlines In Their Absence

Jan Harrelson was elected mayor in a landslide on November 4, for lack of a clear contender to stand against him. He continues to support anti-technology, pro-traditional stance for Edgarton.

On November 11, Commissioner Felton announced that the remaining Wilters assets and Precinct 13 would be assigned to Victor Hawthorne, also known as Reconstruction Agent (and also known as Hammerhand.) They would become Reconstruction Teams, or Recon Teams, tasked with countering meta threats to Edgarton. The program had the support of Mayor Harrelson and Senator Havilander, and got its funding from City Defense Force funds.

Also, the Weller Twins, Jim and Tanya, stepped forward. Jim is 16, Tanya 14, and they are mutants who want to serve the public without secret identities; they are wards of the state represented by Hawthorne.

The police quit their long-standing talks with the city negotiating for better gear, pay, and manpower, because they were angry that City Defense Force funds were paying for the Recon Teams instead of supporting the cops. They announced a walk-out, going on strike on November 15.

Blissful Returns

Genevieve was happily reunited with Graves, Adrian was happily reunited with Emma, and Lydia was happily reunited with Indigo.

The next day, Genevieve reviewed the civic situation with some dismay. Lydia caught Amy up with the story of their travels, and they went shoe shopping. Adrian went jogging with Emma, who mainly started jogging because it annoyed her bodyguard Ellis. Then he got a call from Mugsy.

House Call

Dr. Yancell responded to Adrian’s call and met with him in a coffee shop. Adrian told him about the Oracle of Orcus, and Yancell was relieved to hear the arch demon was divested in the Upper House, where it probably can’t find its way back to Prime. If 5 arch demons are ever on Prime at once, many seals burst, and he knew of 2 not counting the Oracle.

Yancell told Adrian he was in town for two reasons. One is that divinations and auguries indicated Edge City was at a tipping point, and the Lords of Air would use twins to push it over the edge if they could. He wasn’t sure what that meant, but felt he needed to share it.

He also told Adrian that Alecia Harker, the Left Hand of God, a monster slayer, was in town. She had a run-in with a demon worshiping cult in Houston that went catastrophically wrong, and she retreated here to recover, but her morale was at the breaking point. Yancell hoped maybe Adrian was uniquely positioned to talk to her and maybe prevent her from snapping, because if she got unhinged that could be a bigger problem. Adrian agreed.

Specters

Unsurprisingly, the Ghost called a meeting of the Specters. They met in the Justice Dome shortly after dark. Alpha Wolf, Shadow Creeper, Burninator, Tidelia, Swashbuckler, and the Reconstruction Agent himself attended, along with the Ghost. Genevieve, Anna, Adrian, and Lydia also attended.

Alpha Wolf was irritable and alpha, snapping at everyone, probing for weakness and asserting himself. He didn’t get anywhere with it, though he did challenge Victor, who did not take him seriously at all. The Ghost called the meeting to order and asked that they be vigilant as she knew they would be, and also be gentle as the hospitals were likely to be overwhelmed by business with the police on strike.

The Ghost would back up and monitor for larger patterns of organized forces taking advantage of the chaos. Swashbuckler’s crew and Alpha Wolf’s templar would try to keep the order in Torpedo Bay, Burninator and Tidelia would focus on smash-and-grab robberies Downtown and in wealthy areas, Shadow Creeper would protect Settler as best she could, and so on.

Victor pointed out there was a protest at Precinct 13 right now that could turn into a riot, so he was restless to return. First, Genevieve offered to hire on with the Recon Teams, and he enthusiastically agreed to have her on (and Anna too.)

The Left Hand of God

Adrian and Lydia teleported to Feduccis, where Adrian leaned hard on his Brotherhood contacts to find Harker fast. Fortunately Carmina the Topcard was in, an eerie good divination specialist who could allow her dead uncle’s ghost to ride her and find out all sorts of things. She located Harker, going by the alias Mina Stoker, in the Palmetto motel at the edge of Peckstel.

Adrian and Lydia got there quickly, and checked with the clerk to get the room number. Adrian approached alone, with Lydia hiding out as backup. Harker was home, and paranoid, agreeing to talk to Adrian while he held a bomb (in case the conversation didn’t go well.)

He told her what they’d been doing deflecting Hastur, and she got interested in his story, so she took the bomb and they had a beer in the stinky poorly warded motel room. She wanted to hear about shuttering the Brass Embassy, so he took the time and recounted the tale to her. By the end of it, she was again seeing how all of heaven and hell are in those who hunt the monsters, and feeling less isolated. She saw him as the Weapon of Destiny, and herself as the Left Hand of God. She asked if he would accept a tattoo marking him as chosen of God, and he agreed. She pulled out her kit and put the tattoo on his forearm, and he felt a shift in his fate.

It seemed the crisis was past, and she was more stable, so they headed to Precinct 13, Lydia’s teleportation crossing the distance in a flash.

Protest

Anna drove up to the Precinct 13 site and they saw 500-600 protesters, many of them top dog cops and their supporters. Lost of press, lots of worried citizens. The gates were guarded by human agents, but gatbots were stationed in a perimeter watching the crowd, and the twins were ready to jump into action if needed.

Victor met with Anna and Genevieve, delighted to offer them condensed paperwork to join up, and he asked for their advice. They went to the command center, and saw how all the gatbot video feeds and building security feeds could be accessed. The gatbots were recording evidence of misbehavior in the crowd, so if they did want to arrest someone, they would have admissible evidence of criminal behavior.

Genevieve insisted Victor call the twins in, suggesting they were provoking the crowd. Victor agreed. As soon as the twins came to the control room, the boy leaped at Genevieve with a deadly punch. She dodged, and the twins were restrained, but Jim released a mass of black smoke; he was possessed by a Lord of Air, and he said it jumped him earlier in the evening and was planning to get one in his sister too, and trigger a massacre in the protest turned riot.

Loyalties

The protest was broken up by fog and driving November rain and wind. The Precinct picked up quantum energies, and Genevieve got a ping from Burninator that he and Tidelia were on a nearby rooftop, and she was manipulating the weather to defuse the situation. (Burninator also revealed once again his massive crush on Tidelia, but swore everyone to secrecy.)

Adrian and Lydia joined Burninator and Tidelia. Inside, Genevieve appealed to Victor, insisting he was being manipulated and was headed for disaster. They relocated to a bug-free room, and Anna found and removed some of the bugs as Genevieve tried to persuade Hammerhand that Felton was going to use him to change the city’s culture, and that the city needs police or it will fall under the control of Seertech altogether.

Victor struggled with that, as he liked and trusted Felton (who then conveniently showed up.) Victor had many preparations to do for the strike the next day. Genevieve insisted the city needed the cops on duty, and Felton gave her ten boxes of papers with all the studies, proposals, meeting minutes, and correspondence around the issue to see if she could find a way to get the funding. He seemed pleased to have Genevieve on board with Victor.

Regroup

They headed back to Favian Manor. Genevieve had a few stiff drinks and surveyed the mass of material Felton gave her. Adrian and Genevieve also gave Lydia a few stories by the way of history to contextualize the situation.

Kryptma arrived, and they strategized about how to reach the Upper House on the Plateau of Leng. They would have to pass through a swarm of nightgaunts, who could be safely repelled by a Distillate of Consciousness so no dream space gave them leave to approach. The easiest way to do this would be to go to The Market, where Kryptma happened to be a seller, so she had a way in. She warned them how strange the place could be.

The Market

She put a live crab in each of their mouths, and put a crab mask on her face, then they moved through the reflection of water and became the crab, emerging in The Market. She collected her crabs back, and threw away a lucky penny to summon a goblin guide to help them shop. They wended through The Market seeing many rare and wonderful things, then headed down the stairs to the Undermarket, seeing truths about them light up as symbols on the walls. At the bottom, they met the armored centipede centaur guards in heavy armor, who greeted the Oracle of Orcus as a powerful person, and acknowledged the others. A scent urchin gave them nose drops so they could smell whatever they liked instead of the hoary stench of the Undermarked. Then they went to a bridge across a pond, with a tower on an island in the center. By now Kinslton was manifesting physical signs of his formidable demon passenger, and he talked with the Oracle, shifting the manifestations to more of a bird-like appearance instead of something insectile.

They were served by a satyr there who gave them what they were after, in crystal form. The Chalice Bearer apparently had an account that had been accruing interest, so they could pay for it. They got special dispensation to leave through a gate in the pond instead of official channels, and once again used the crab ritual. Kryptma stopped them during the journey and pulled off all the parasites and other hitchhikers from The Market, then they returned, emerging on Prime from the fountain in the lobby of the hotel.

The Tower of Amepal

Back in their room, they said their goodbyes as seemed best for each. Genevieve telepathically contacted her husband, Adrian wrote letters to Mugsy and Emma, and told Snowfall they’d try to figure out her freedom if he returned. She gave him a feather he could burn once, to invoke their connection and bolster his magic. Lydia wrote letters to Amy and Indigo, Kinslton left some instructions for his butler, and Burr polished her boots.

Now ready for whatever may come, they followed Kryptma through the bathroom mirror onto the back of a majestic sky flap flap, a manta ray that could fly through the Umbra. They flew through many strange scenes, and they approached a screaming void of night. Kryptma embedded the crystal of Distillate of Consciousness in Adrian’s chest, and he shone to push back the night and the nightgaunts as they flew through that gulf. Then they reached a strange place full of monoliths, perhaps to the Sky Gods, where they leaked life essence just being in the place. They goaded the flap flap up to the highest tower, and dismounted, releasing the flap flap to go elsewhere.

From there, Genevieve unleashed the illumination in her bauble, and it lit up the fins at the top of the tower and released a brilliant light as it made her an eye far enough from the bustle of linear life that she could see forward and backward in time as never before. She resisted visions, staying focused on the moment, and a shantak flew up to investigate.

She made telepathic contact with it at great cost to her sanity, and it seemed to agree to take them to the Plateau of Leng. They climbed aboard, finding it generated its own gravity, and it lazily drifted away from the Tower of Amepal, through the dimensional barrier, and eventually on to the Plateau of Leng. It flew through the stars, which gathered all around them. Then the featureless gray expanse lay below, endless.

The Upper House

They approached the Upper House, which had pylons allowing it to connect to other dimensions, as in rituals to summon one dimension to touch another. They fell from the shantak, out of its gravity, and a combination of their powers got them to the ground safely. They saw the dust cloud of an approaching group, and quickly headed into the Upper House.

Inside it was designed with geomorph-like blocks of space that could shift and flicker around. A person could be lost inside forever, going from one kind of rooms to another; there were endless staircases, gardens, baths, banquet halls, and so on. They used their Umbra savvy to navigate a fairly direct path to the top, finding an open plaza under the burning constellation of the Hyades and Aldeberan burning red. There were two posts and a lectern, a setup to create a gate and dial in its location.

They felt the psychic pressure of the King in Yellow descending towards this place, and how it forced all the Upper House into alignment, providing a straight path to the entrance. Ralph Quarrie finally caught up with them. He was relaxed, in his white suit, smoking a cigarette, very excited about the coming entrance. He was the Stranger, the White Acolyte from the West. He would guide Hastur to earth.

That could not be allowed. Adrian burst him with a magical attack.

As the spray of Quarrie’s remains rained down, the King in Yellow appeared on the other side and asked them who would guide him to earth. Inside Kinslton, the Oracle of Orcus insisted that the King in Yellow was the angel he hunted, in one of his forms! He wanted to attack, and Kinslton refused, so the Oracle reformed Quarrie’s body, leaped out of Kinslton, and into Quarrie, rounding on the King to do battle.

Fearing that such a grudge match would destroy them all (whether it destroyed the Oracle or the King) Adrian used his fate to slay the infernal and once again burst Quarrie, this time depriving an arch-demon of a vessel in the process. The King generated a Yellow Sign, and for the first time they saw it as a hyperdimensional coordinate that was like a virus, putting a crack in every consciousness it met, where enough of them could be a sizable breach in an otherwise secure dimensional wall. The Yellow Sign gusted the arch demon to disperse without a host, at least for the moment. Again, the King asked for a guide.

Genevieve knew that could not happen. She shifted her bauble to a sword, and thrust it into the reflection of the Yellow King, relying on her fate to banish the entity. As the blade touched the King, the pylons outside that were charged and primed to allow dimensions to touch were deactivated, and the projection of the Yellow King was whisked back to the Hyades, far from earth.

Return to Prime

Kryptma used the gate in the Upper House to take the group back to Prime. They had been gone four days, but Olivia knew that Adrian was likely still alive until the he used the feather on the assault on possessed Quarrie, when the connection severed and she feared them truly dead. Before they had time to act on that change in plans, the adventurers returned.

Kinslton was now without the Arch Demon Oracle of Orcus, but some of the spawn the Oracle left behind whispered that they could be Legion, and serve him still as symbiotic allies; he found that pleasing. Lydia also found that the incredible sensory expansions she experienced through the whole weird ordeal climaxing in the presence of the Yellow King intensified her mutation, so new powers would soon be hers.

On Friday, November 4, they took a flight from New York to Milan, arriving at 7:00 a.m. the next morning. They met Taylor Hawkins, who was happy to meet their plane on the back tarmac and let them go straight from the plane to the panel van, bypassing customs.

She took them to their rooms at the historic hotel. Colombo’s shipping office hours suggested they opened at 10, so the investigators had a few hours to pass before going there to meet him. Unused to air travel, Burr and Kinslton needed a nap. Adrian went to the hotel coffee shop to catch up with Taylor and swap stories. Lydia studied her phrasebook, and Genevieve used Google Translate to research what she could on Guiseppe Colombo.

Giuseppe Colombo was an eccentric but gifted scholar. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1972, but defrocked in 1980 for heretical writings. He was a professor at the Catholic university in Milan for 20 years, publishing in history or anthropology. He dropped out of sight in 2000.

Shipping

With the time passed, they headed out to the shipping office. Taylor parked the van in a side street, and they headed up the creaky stairs to the poorly marked office. Colombo and Villiers were discussing something in the smelly and old office, and were wary of strangers. Colombo was increasingly rude towards them until he abruptly pivoted his wheelchair and let himself out.

They presented themselves as seekers of Hastur lore who were friends with Roby, and demonstrated they had an idea what the cult was about and what its goals were. Villiers was interested in talking further, and not dissuaded by his companion’s rudeness. He invited them to his nearby loft studio.

The Studio

They saw his art, and the huge window he had for seeing the night sky while painting for a certain critical night of the year. He had planned to be done with painting upon moving to Italy, but he shrugged that the stars were right and he couldn’t resist. His paintings grew more abstract, they saw, as though his deterioration and nearness to death was rendering his grasp of symbol more tenuous and his raw feeling and emotion more unbearable. The paintings especially spoke to Lydia and Burr.

This studio is where the Brotherhood met, before Quarrie, Anzalone, Schippone, and Delnegro headed off on the Great Pilgrimage to be present for the Second Coming. Villiers had to excuse himself for a few minutes to deal with his health issues, and the investigators had a freer hand to look around.

Kinslton saw the byakhee whistle and pocketed it, and Genevieve telepathically told the others she sensed a byakhee in the periphery waiting. Adrian took a quick look over the mass of notes sprawled on the table, but didn’t get much from that. Then Villiers was back, and increasingly suspicious.

Genevieve lured him into talking more about the Great Pilgrimage. Villiers explained that Christianity was really a distortion of Hastur, or an avatar of Hastur, walking the earth. He pointed out the ways the story cycle could be distorted to combine gnosticism and the Christian narrative as a mask for Hastur’s unwavering truth. More the purview of the scholars, Quarrie and Anzalone.

The four have gone to meet the Living God, Chaugnar Faungn, so he can open the way from Drakmar (in Nepal) to the Plateau of Leng. Hastur will step from the stars to the Upper House in Leng, and from there be guided to earth. The Tsotsowa people, also known as the Tcho Tcho, wait on the threshold and tend their god, for theWhite Acolyte will come from the West to set him free.

The Angel

They discovered about all they wanted to know from Villiers. Kinslton bluntly told him they were going to take his mythos books (he had a three volume set of The Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan and the Biography of Cheleg. Villiers yelled in Latin for his defender to come out, and a byakhee breached the periphery and attacked them.

Adrian’s first mystical strike at it fizzled, unexpectedly, but his second dashed across it brutally. Kinslton unleashed the Dread Curse against Villiers, destroying him messily. Burr used her witchblade to repeatedly stab the byakhee, and Genevieve drew her blade from the orb and beheaded the thing while Lydia held it with telekinesis.

Lydia stuffed the corpse in the water closet to get rid of the smell for the moment, and the investigators spent more time perusing the records. All the preparation to get up to Drakmar, in the Mustang kingdom in Nepal, was laid out. A guide, a helicopter ride, all of it. They left October 25.

Taking the 4 mythos books and a sheaf of the most critical papers, they left the loft and returned to the hotel.

Drakmar History

They spent some time with their stolen books. They read the tale of how the Tcho Tchos slew Balmo, a demon ogress, in Drakmar, and how the red cliffs were painted with her blood and chorten, monuments or shrines were erected to pin down her heart and liver and such. And so the Tcho Tcho nomads established their only permanent habitation.

They brought with them their Living God, Chaugnar Faugn, immobile on a rock pedestal. The valley was shunned and feared by the locals.

Until a troubled king of Mustang, Amepal, approached the Tcho Tcho and their leader Rigdzinbum. Amepal offered them prisoners of war and criminals to sacrifice to their god, in exchange for help against his enemies. Sure enough, his enemies died or went insane, and he became a very powerful king.

His son, Agon Sangpo, hated the Tcho Tcho. He lured Rigdzinbum and his advisers in to a meeting and killed them. Then he took the army to the cliffs of Drakmar and killed all he could find. Of course, some got away, and over the following years his nearest and dearest went insane or died, until it was his turn. The greatly reduced Tcho Tcho hid and tended their god and waited for the White Acolyte who would come from the West to set him free.

The Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan were apparently written by a spy who infiltrated an Asian order of Azatothian mythos hunters who eradicated cults and sought to protect the world. The spy escaped and shared as much of their accumulated secret lore as he could before his death quickly caught up to him. Subsequent scholars and such have glossed the text. The English translation is in three books.

They found much of the foundations of what the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign used for their interpretation of events, and also found that one source of information on Drakmar and Leng was a “Cup Carrier” or something like that; the original symbol in the text is repeated in case others have a better translation.

Reaching Drakmar

They quickly dismissed the idea of traveling to Drakmar in Nepal. There must be another way to reach the Plateau of Leng, as shamen or mythos wizards. Time for research! They asked Taylor to see if she could get them access to a mythos library; dubious, she agreed to check with her contacts. That process could take time to unfold.

Kinslton checked in with the Brotherhood of the Road, exercising his clout and burning a favor. They texted him coordinates where Hanzo’s Rolling Library would be. Luckily it was in Milan today. They headed to the coordinates, a public park at the edge of the city with a nice walking path.

Hanzo’s Rolling Library

They met an eccentric man concealed from those not looking for him. He was robust, wearing a flat brimmed hat with pom poms hanging from it, and a vest, bracers, a red sash, a black vest, and flip flops. He offered them a ride in a double-wide rickshaw. Genevieve and Kinslton agreed and climbed in; he rocked it back and then down again, and they were gone.

They tumbled into an otherdimensional space stuffed with books and curated by a somewhat androgynous vampire. They asked how to get to the Plateau of Leng, and she observed it was an airlock dimension through Prime’s defenses, when the stars were right, and therefore tough to crack. There was a way in from Prime, but they didn’t want to use that. So, the two easiest ways in—go to the Deep Umbra and come in from the top, or get a shantak and ride it through the defenses, as shantak fly in and out of there all the time.

Since Genevieve was a Sorceress of Llyr, her bauble could be used to get a shantak’s attention on the Tower of Amepal. The vampire gave her a piece of parchment, human skin, with the umbral trailsign of how to get there.

For payment for her services, Kinslton agreed to give her some blood. She made a big deal out of enjoying all its complexities and subtleties and flavors. Then they returned, sitting on the couch and catapulting back into the rickshaw.

Meanwhile, the doorman had chatted freely with Adrian (and given him an ice cream cone from in his vest, impossibly.) Several of the doorman’s clothing items were magical, won in fights, because he was a street fighter. He was also not Hanzo; the vampire inside was Hanzo, he was the doorman. He offered to fight Burr, his hat against her bracelet, but she demurred. The doorman also mentioned the Green Flame, he sensed it about Adrian; for or against? Adrian was against. The doorman talked about a ninja clan that used the green flame in fights.

The scholars returned, the doorman rolled the library away, and they returned to the hotel.

After loading up the truck, they get permission from Chief Crane to leave it parked in the police parking lot while they figure out what to do next. Then they head back to the yacht for a good night’s sleep. They all got thoroughly clean while Roby cried with longing for Carcosa.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Burr had a nightmare about a town in Colorado, stalking some danger, moving through bedsheets on a clothesline and realizing they were flapping but there was no wind, and pivoting to face an empty cowl. She woke up early, sweating from the intensity.

Lydia had a dream of being in a space surrounded by portals to places she’d jumped, putting on a white robe to stave off the chill. She realized her tiny room was a spec in a much larger space, and she was a seed that could grow to be mighty and huge like a tree. She held a rippling mirror in her hand, and looking into it, realized it was a pallid mask—she could be the Messenger. She woke late, languid and confined in her body.

Kinslton was protected from nightmares by the cooing and petting of dozens of new demons. Apparently the Oracle is an arch demon and arch demons shed new demons as a matter of course; is he building up a reserve of new demons in his psychic reserve? When he woke, he admitted this was going on to the group before seeking alcohol to not care so much.

Burr, Genevieve, and Anna went to the truck and shifted the parts they wanted to keep and what they were willing to give away. Later in the day, Burr’s allies came and took the hex boxes and many of the cursed items, and Anna drove the truck to Edgarton, to unload the material into Kinslton’s library.

Online research revealed Malcolm Quarrie in Milan, he was in online photos with Thomas Villiers, a painter from Kingsport. The pictures range from early 2008 to 2009, connected to "Il Fratelli del Signo Giallo (The Brothers of the Yellow Sign.) In May 2009 Quarrie and Villiers relocate to Milan with an offshoot cell hosted by Guiseppe Colombo in his shipping offices. They are a somewhat secretive theosophical society, so there’s not much about them online (though their page notes they have an annual performance of a mystery play, outsiders not invited.) Adrian had to read the Italian to help Genevieve investigate.

Also, in looking at Quarrie property records, they discovered he has an estranged wife named Hillary and a 4 year old daughter named Sarah. They live in England, 30 miles south of Gloucester, in Lower Clotton, at a place called Nug’s Farm.

Thomas Villiers was a microfamous painter in Kingsport, with art shows every few years. His active periods were between October and December. He had weird paintings, most of it not online. His fans were avid, his detractors rabid. He was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2006, and left Kingsport in 2008. The Henshaw Gallery had some of his work available for potential purchasers to view, but not out on display.

Adrian reached Camelbert in a private call, asking him to track down Yancell for him; he wanted to consult with the demonologist about the situation with Kinslton (though he didn’t name names.) He also set up a flight for them to Milan, leaving from New York next day.

Kinslton found the events of the previous night deeply distressing, so he got drunk and watched tv, eventually sharing drink with the miserable Roby so they were both drunk. Kinslton failed to order things from infomercials, but told his troubles to unsympathetic operators.

Lydia took Adrian and Geneveive to North Island by teleportation. Genevieve deactivated the space trap, and Lyida telekinetically restrained Evans/Edwards as the four of them went through the mirror and to a pocket dimension where monsters hunted each other. Genevieve tossed Edwards in, and they returned to Prime. Lydia teleported them all back to the yacht, where they collected Roby, and returned him to the island. No supernatural force should now be agitating for his release, so the medication should keep him calm and safe now. They worked things out with the doctor and teleported out.

Burr, Genevieve, and a rapidly sobered Kinslton went to the Henshaw Gallery to meet with Margarita and see Villiers’ art. Kinslton was enamored of a full suit made of CDs, buying the art and wearing the suit instead of leaving it on the mannequin as intended; that kept him busy with all the shiny for the rest of the visit.

Burr and Genevieve went into a private viewing area (Villiers didn’t want lots of people seeing his art) and saw the abstract style; a figure in yellow robes that looked like a keyhole, an abstract of comber waves that could be tattered fabric, and a hollowed out roulette wheel turned into a puzzle. Burr solved it by orienting on a constellation, and building the pattern right, and she saw the Yellow Sign and was affected by it. She bought the wheel, titled “Pointing To the Sign.”

Returning to the yacht, they showed the wheel and its puzzle to Lydia. Burr helped put it together again, and Lydia saw a symbol for how teleportation and acting in space-time worked. Both Burr and Lydia felt a strange feeling, the Yellow Sign creating an emotional response that did not yet have a human name for it. Lydia fenced with Adrian until the feeling was bearable again.

The crew decided to go to Milan and find out more from Quarrie about his plans for Hastur. They arranged for Anna to catch up, and the yacht took them to New York for a midday flight on November 4, off to Milan. Genevieve released Mr. Kissynose to ask Kryptma to come in for a consult.

As they sailed towards Boston, they pulled out computers and did some research. Turns out on New Year’s Eve of 2007, right at midnight there were a dozen deaths in town; the very young and the very old. Subsequent research found it was not a cancer cluster or anything, so since deaths did not continue, the anomaly only warranted a brief mention.

Hollister was a county, and also a town. The deaths were in town, surrounded by farms, dairy and otherwise.

Researching the Roby case, the murder was October 14 2008. Those working the case were Detective Sergeant Lorimer and Detective Stephens. There were two victims, the father Herbert and his daughter Georgina. The father was killed with a puncture, and exsanguinated, though almost none of his blood was on the scene. Half Georgina’s rib cage was missing, her blood was everywhere, but it appeared to be a different murder weapon. Both required massive strength. A door was shattered off its hinges on an upstairs balcony, and another in the doorway to the study where the two victims were found. Alexander Roby was the only one home, and he claimed he did it.

However, as there was no murder weapon and he lacked the strength necessary, and he was out of his mind, the legal apparatus got him a plea bargain for two years evaluation to see if he was competent to stand trial, and swept the whole thing under the rug. Seems rubber stamps would be enough to keep it under the rug, so why the pressure to complete the evaluation and potentially get Roby moved to another facility?

HOLLISTER

They rented a van, piling Anna in to drive, with Genevieve, Adrian, Snowfall, Kinsleton, Lydia, Burr, and Roby inside. Genevieve used her interrogation skills to try and engage Roby, who was in heightening levels of discomfort, edging into pain, as he could feel the real world and it was not Carcosa. The medication was wearing off.

She did get a garbled reference to “Jennings” and when they asked at a gas station there was a Jennings farm nearby.

As an expert in mythos issues, Kinslton knew that they’d need some kind of focusing device, and for something of this magnitude, something big (like the stone heads of Easter Island for R’lyeh.) Maybe a gazebo, or plinths, or something. So when he did an aerial recon and saw nine granite standing stones knocked down and half hidden under twisted bushes on a big dead spot of ground, he knew they had their focus. He flew down and directed them by back road. They reached the site, reading off the plinths; each one had a phrase that was part of a ritual, that the caster could activate once the plinth was loaded with energy and properly positioned. This could serve as a dimensional beacon, a focus to coalesce another world in this one. If it was standing up and powered and then released at just the right time.

What were they trying to do? What went wrong? The Great Old Ones have many personas and faces. Hastur was different in some ways from his avatar the King in Yellow; the King belongs in Carcosa, but Hastur does not. Still, for just a moment, Hastur touched down on earth, claiming a toll of souls and sending madness and writhing mutation through the summoners, some of whom survived (like Edwards.)

And these crazy assholes were going to try AGAIN.

Roby crouched, eyes twitching around the sky, mumbling snatches of a ritual to summon a byakhee; he was NOT happy to be gagged. They realized one was drifting in the Mists of R’lyeh high above, standing guard, bound to the site.

The incoming baying of farm dogs persuaded them to leave before Genevieve could look back in time, to see what made this place desolate, its ground spongy, death and weirdness radiating from the permanent scar in the Veil. They retreated to the van, and from there figured they had all Hollister had to offer them; back to Boston.

By this time Genevieve was getting numerous calls from Dr. Brewer, which she did not answer.

THEPOLICEINVESTIGATION

They did some more research and phone calling from the van on the way back to Boston. Once there, they tracked down Detective Lorimer, because their background on him indicated he came from Kingsport and considered Chief Crane a mentor. When they got back to the station, he didn’t want to talk to them, so they name-dropped Crane, he made a call, then let them in and showed them the evidence from the Roby murder two years ago.

New pieces included a tape of Roby’s confession, with a transcript. He was obviously not in his right mind entirely. Also a carved whistle maybe eight inches long, fancifully fashioned after the shapes of a byakhee.

They also discovered that Grahame, Alexander Roby’s brother, inherited most of the estate. He would inherit more if Alexander was permanently out of the way. Still, the police concluded that his distaste for scandal far outweighed his greed in this matter.

THEROBYHOUSE

They talked to Lowell, the butler at the Roby house. Lowell indicated that Grahame did not want to meet with them and found the whole matter profoundly distasteful, but Lowell was to show them the crime scene to satisfy their curiosity or whatever. He also indicated that Dr. Brewer had called several times asking him to tell them to call him, if he heard from them.

Genevieve finally called Dr. Brewer, told him they were doing unconventional things and needed time. He nervously agreed to grant it, understanding that the situation was unusual. She pushed back to ask why this was coming back up in the legal system; he noticed that was odd too, that was one reason he invited her to consult. As far as he could tell, Judge Tercell, who would be overseeing the trial, was not particularly motivated. The Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Claire Blanche WAS motivated. In checking to find out more about her, all Dr. Brewer found was that she was being pushed by a shadowy lawyer, Emery Silvers.

Genevieve peered back through time and witnessed the brutal byakhee attack that slew the two victims in the room.

They also talked to Lowell about Alexander’s state; he had deteriorated mentally in the fall of 2007, to the point where his fiancee broke off her engagement. At that point Grahame hired a private investigator who followed him for three weeks getting more information on his friends, then suddenly fired the investigator; Lowell doesn’t know why. Lowell did offer them a flash drive with the detective’s reports.

The investigators wanted a copy of Alexander’s book of poetry, but Lowell was not willing to part with it. They could look at it, but not take it with them. It was a jumbled mess, talking about how this was the first two acts and the third, that may or may not be written, was of walking in Caracosa. That we would think we were the first, but we would not be, and would have to learn that for ourselves. All manner of nonsense, about making the Yellow Sign with a fist in the air, plain enough to Bespeak the End of Day, some sort of prognosticatory ritual. The dreams were in German, the commentary and instruction in English. The whole book was under 100 pages.

They retreated, realizing by the end that Lowell found the whole affair distasteful and tragic, but was actually interested in helping them as best he could—probably more than his master would like.

TUCK’S INVESTIGATION

Reviewing his files, they found Tuck identified three main confederates that gathered at a residence in Downtown Kingsport, sometimes staying all night. It was Bacon’s residence.

Alexander Roby himself stayed in temporary lodgings and only went out to visit the library or Bacon’s residence.

Appended at the end was a reference to the report Tuck gave Grahame in person that led to his firing. No information was included.

TO KINGSPORTFORBACON

They gathered on the yacht. As they headed to Kingsport, they checked on Emery Silvers, the rogue lawyer pushing on this case. He did not have much online or physical presence, he was a handsome dignified lawyer without partners or employees. He did note he was a member of the Silver Twilight Lodge. He was based out of Boston.

Research into Quarrie indicated he surrendered his position at Miskatonic U around the time of the Hollister incident, and he was abroad; a former student’s Facebook indicated he got a postcard from Milan, Italy.

They were met in Kingsport at the dock by Chief Crane, and after a brief commiseration, he handed them over to Officer Steve, who would drive them around. They asked where they could find Bacon’s shop; it wasn’t listed, only those who knew about it could find it, but Steve was a good cop who knew his beat, and he knew where the shop was. By now it was after dark, but they wanted to visit anyway.

Officer Steve parked several blocks away out of sight, and they approached on foot. They found a locked door, with a knob lock and two deadbolts. Genevieve strolled through those, and they opened the door to find a mesh cage; Bacon could stand in this protected space and hand things out through the door slot. If invaders came in, they were trapped in the cage with him. Shivering a bit, Genevieve disabled the alarm and lock and opened the cage, so they could enter the stinky dark shop.

They found shelves stuffed with occult books. Downstairs, they found a big iron safe, as well as shelves packed with naughty items, some with spirits bound to them. There was a gaping hole in the wall behind a stove, and carved in the stone floor in front of it a ward against ghouls, powerful Mythos warding.

Genevieve cracked the safe by touch, and found a starkly alarming cache of books, and a bell with a stand.

Meanwhile on the top floor someone was moving around, then playing accordion for a while. Eventually the mysterious figure stopped, and muttered as he took an umbrella with his coat, and went out. Lydia teleported herself and Kinslton outside, so they didn’t have to go through all the locks, and Kinslton pursued in raven form.

The man was careful in doubling back and running errands, watching for pursuit. Then he headed to the artist colony of Southside, the back streets. He towered over a bum, and began to cast a spell, tearing the life force out of the victim.

Kinslton knew he had to interfere, so he dropped out of the sky and attacked. The wizard was knocked down, but hit Kinslton with a Dread Curse, killing him outright—

INTERLUDEWITHTHEORACLE

In a dark swarming place, Kinslton hung alone in empty space as the arch-demon approached and explained open space was premium in Hell. The Oracle decided to save him instead of just taking the body, because the Oracle wanted continuing help from Kinslton’s friends, and this arrangement wasn’t so bad. So, he healed the aggravated wound, and returned Kinslton control of his body.

Kinslton dropped to the pavement outside Bacon’s store, slathered with blood and ichor, vomiting out wriggling bits of flesh. Apparently when the wizard was killed, he turned into some formless monster, and the Oracle used Kinslton’s body to kill him (even though it took a while to do it right.) This may be the worst way to eat Bacon.

CLEANINGOUTTHEBACONHOUSE

Alarmed by his condition but relieved he was basically alright, Lydia got the two of them back in the building, where he told his story. They continued their search upstairs, finding a mass of hex boxes (boxes designed to trap cursed items so they can’t function) filling a bookshelf upstairs.

Burr called her people, who could take the hex boxes and any other dangerous items—just not right away.

Roby, in hand but insane. Edwards, trapped in a space time trap for one more day. Bacon, killed and eaten. Quarry, still at large. Other members: unknown. This cult may be tiny, but it was punching way above its weight. And all is not yet revealed.

Genevieve. She worked extensively with Jane Roftweilderant to get set up for the masquerade ball in Favian Manor on Halloween, her birthday. The event would benefit the “Lives Reconstructed” charity run by Victor Hawthorn, known as Hammerhand and the Reconstruction Agent. It was a halfway house to reintegrate convicts and subsistence workers into society, based around the Gateway factory in Torpedo Bay. Roftweilderant suggested an avante guarde play with a masquerade theme that would be a perfect fit, but Genevieve demurred, feeling a string quartet would be sufficient.

Kinslton. With Chatterly gone, he needed a new source for books. He approached Lady Underwood, who put him in touch with Dr. Ben Wiley, an anthropology teacher at the University. Kinslten met with him, and got the process started for getting more occult books, focusing on what you’d need to know to hunt an angel. He also contacted Shadow Creeper and asked her to go to the Favian Manor masquerade with him. She turned him down, but then later contacted him and agreed to go. Carruthers, the butler, helped Kinslton think through dinner, a limo, and flowers for his date.

Burr. She checked with Kinslton to see how he’d feel about a roomate; he had plenty of space, so she moved out of Favian Church and into his brownstone mansion. She got to meet Alpha Wolf, the three of them went on a couple thug bashing expeditions over time. She decided to go to the masquerade ball, and got an expensive musketeer costume complete with the fancy hat.

Adrian. After screening a lot of candidates to be Emma’s new bodyguard, replacing Grimm, he settled on Sam Gables, a Chauncy werewolf back from the war. In the sandbox, he disabled explosives and went down into spider holes. He carries a sawed off shotgun as a long pistol, and is just looking for a quiet job to support his family. Emma started picking on him immediately. Adrian dressed as the Phantom of the Opera, Emma as Christine, for the masquerade ball.

Lydia. She continued working at the bookstore and training with Amy, who lured her out past her normal moral fences in stealing from organized crime on a lark. Her training also continued. For the masquerade ball, she dressed all in white, with makeup, as a ghostly spirit. Her floating strange hair added to the ethereal feel of her costume.

AT THEBALL

It was a dark and stormy night, but the mass of valet parking attendants, caterers, and extra security smoothed out the logistical challenges. Anna Burke was in charge of security overall, and Geneveive arrived in her costume as the Masque of Red Death. Her husband, Graves, wore a suit and a rubber Richard Nixon mask, growling that he was not a crook. (He spent about half an hour mingling, then left to write it all down; too many secrets to just remember.)

Indigo, vampire bohemian, arrived with a few dates. He sat in playing his Spanish guitar with the string quartet, and they were happy to have him. He also played independently, gathering a swooning following. Burr introduced herself, as did Lydia. Lydia was so captivated by the strange vampire’s allure that she shared a cab with him back to the city, and ended up going to his lair with him for a languid day of passion after the masquerade.

Kinslton saw “Victoria” (as Shadow Creeper wanted him to call her) without costume, just using her shadow powers to make clothes and makeup. He realized she was younger than he thought, about 16, and that cooled his ardor somewhat. They had a pleasant evening of conversation, where he found out Indigo talked to her about him and changed her mind so she was willing to come out with him tonight.

Alpha Wolf came, stapling together a “Death” costume with black sheets, and carrying a scythe he got in some thrift store. He was sort of disruptive, so after a short time, Anna offered him the opportunity to go watch television downstairs with a full fridge of beer. Eventually Kinslton and Shadow Creeper also went down and joined him, and after a while they headed out to scare vandals and keep Halloween night safer.

Emma was still shunned among the elites, and flouncing her disregard of their opinion. After the masquerade was over, she took Adrian home, called him her angel of music, and had a very romantic evening.

Genevieve met with Dr. Brewer, who wanted her consultation on a patient to see if he was ready to stand trial. She agreed to use her telepathic powers to help out, much to his relief. He gave her his contact information on North Island Sanitorium.

Genevieve also tracked some of the notables in attendance. She chatted with Carver Bertinelli, a rising star in the Bertinelli crime family as it gathered its strength. She saw Granger and Morris Pennywise (dressed as young Indiana Jones and his father.) Also the Adler twins, dressed as Sherlock and Watson. Apparently Ariel Chase showed up for about 20 minutes, to make a donation.

Hammerhand made a speech about the charity and the importance of its work (complete with powerpoint) and by the end of the evening where they raised $2.5 million, he thanked them, and flew away with the money to the applause of the room.

The event was a rousing success.

ALEXANDERROBY

Genevieve contacted Adrian, Kinslton, Burr, and Lydia to see if they wanted to go to the Sanitarium with her. They all agreed, piling on Adrian’s yacht (along with Mugsy, Anna, and Snowfall) and headed out, arriving at the island about 4 p.m.

Orderly Johnson met them and ushered them in to wait in the library and the study, with promise of supper at 6. He waited with them in case they needed anything, as he fiddled with his cell phone. Dr. Brewer took Genevieve upstairs to meet the patient.

Some time after they left, another nurse was talking heatedly to Johnson, upset that these people were here; he was told to go away, and he did, but he gave them the stink-eye first.

The patient, Alexander Roby, was kept in conditions where he could not write anything down, or have shoelaces or a belt; minimally responsive because of the medication, Dr. Brewer was curious to know what kind of condition he’d be if he came out of the medication, because he seemed in great pain before. Was he really lucid in there? If they could find out without putting him through agony, that would be best.

Genevieve talked to him, getting disjointed answers irrelevant to her questions. Roby asked after Delia, and when she wasn’t there, he told her not to come. He said it was inconvenient, being locked up, because he wanted to finish his work. Is this the year? Is this this one in five thousand?

He nattered on some insights about truth, and how it melts falsehood, and everything changes, and the world becomes responsive. He asked if they had seen the pallid mask, or been down by the lake to see the beauty and feel the rightness. He said the King in Yellow has called himself the White Acolyte. “I don’t think he can stay away. The King will not offer him what he hopes—to divert the King’s attention away from our Earth, back upon the dream city, he must think of Cassilda’s song.” Then he sang a weirdly tuned ditty.

He focused on them. “Have you seen the Yellow Sign?” Brewer observed that he had tried pictures of a “yield” road sign or a railroad crossing sign, both yellow, to no avail.

Roby said something about Edwards wanting to work with him, pencils and margins, what Edwards and he were doing harms no one. But Quarrie… he’s dangerous. Are you with Quarrie? Where is he now? Has he brought the King in Yellow? Is he among us?

That concluded the questioning, where Roby sat staring vaguely at the ceiling, as though he could see through it and the cloud cover to a certain constellation.

ALEXANDERROBY, AGAIN

Genevieve decided to go into the disturbed man’s mind, so she would take Adrian and Kinslton with her as experts. (When Kinslton left, the Oracle would get to use his body, but he promised to behave.) They stepped into Roby’s mind, but fell through countless endless space, ending up ghostlike and half-present in a strange place with two suns. There they found Roby’s ghost-like mind.

Now much more lucid, he was surprised to see them. He told them this was Carcosa, a place that only existed in the brief moments between when a city became Carcosa, and when it was irrevocably altered by the ascendance of the King in Yellow. He breathed that a whole lifetime could be lived in those moments and be no less rich.

He talked about how Carcosa was responsive to thought and will, changing you as you change it, responsive in a way his native reality is not but in a way that he now cannot live without.

He discovered Carcosa through dreaming, but when he met with Bacon, Edwards, and Quarrie, they confirmed for him that it was a real place and he threw in with them to find it and bring it to earth so he could live here forever. Then something about a previous attempt, and it went wrong; he got anxious as they heard footsteps nearby, drawing closer. If they find you, they force you to go home. He blurred through the setting, pulling them along. But then he didn’t trust them, for they did not wear masks. He blurred away, and rather than catching him, they bounced back across the vastness of the void, ending an interstellar trip by crash landing in their bodies.

Genevieve promised Dr. Brewer to work with him on the book about this case, and to document her steps and processes. When Kinslton got back to his body, the Oracle was desperate to know where he’d been, and insisted on seeing Roby in person. They accomodated, and the Oracle whispered to Kinslton that Roby was the one true fit, the only human vessel that could contain Haniel’s energy and provide him with a host on earth that would not burn through. Kinslton told the others (but not Brewer.)

They had pleasant conversation through supper.

NURSEEVANS

As the after-dinner chat moved to the library, Adrian decided to check on his suspicion. Someone named Edwards was working with Roby, directly enough to smuggle him pencils to try and finish his spell to summon Carcosa. And there was a nurse that wasn’t happy to see them. He used magical stealth and slipped out of the room, wandering the building until he found Evans’ room in the basement. He listened at the door, very carefully, and heard “Evans” grunting frustrated and enraged phrases, along with what sounded like the slitting and plunging of a knife in flesh.

Concerned, Adrian withdrew to rejoin the others. He collected Genevieve, Kinslton, and Anna, and they stealthed downstairs while Lydia and Burr kept Dr. Brewer entertained by looking over the library books.

The intruders interrupted “Nurse Evans” in the shower with a butcher knife, his wounds already healed almost entirely. They confronted him, and he leaped at them with a knife, slashing uselessly at Kinslton before Adrian pinned him in place with magical force. Genevieve interrogated him, finding out he was indeed Evans, as Kinslton loaded up a Dread Curse. Evans resisted interrogation until the Dread Curse of Azathoth crushed into him, that the Incident with Roby took place in Hollister, MA. He needed Roby to finish the spell to bring Carcosa to earth.

By this point they transitioned to Anna pinning him in place, and Kinslton worked with Genevieve to create a space trap on the bathroom door; if he tried to escape the bathroom, he would be lost. They set it to expire in three days. Then they hurled their prisoner into the bathroom, and retreated upstairs.

They said goodbye, insisting that Dr. Brewer not allow any of his staff in to Evans’ room, or go there himself, for three days. They headed back to the yacht; Kinslton flew ahead and got Mugsy to drive it up to the pier. Everyone got aboard, then after a conversation, they decided it was too risky to leave Roby and Edwards on the same island. Lydia took Adrian along in case of trouble, and they teleported to Roby’s room, snatched him, and retreated to the yacht, sailing towards Boston to find more answers.

Against the Necromancer

Sunday, October 10

After celebrating their victory, they went their separate ways. The next day, Genevieve called in Jane Roftweilderant to begin planning a charity ball for Halloween, a Gothic masquerade. She decided to throw the ball on Halloween for her birthday, and donate the proceeds to Hammerhand’s charity.

Afterwards, she took Anna Burke and went to find the Shell Clan. She caught up to Blake in the sewers, and chatted about life and times. Also told them about the darkshell in the arcology; Blake was relieved, as wiping it out could displace movie night, and Master had picked Sleepless in Seattle. Again.

As Kinslton was having his breakfast volcano of scrambled eggs and sriracha sauce, Carruthers escorted Mr. Fetch in to see him on Baron Kennedov’s behalf. He just wanted to remind him to fit Indigo into his busy schedule. A friendly chat, and he was on his way. After breakfast Kinslton headed to Favian Manor.

Burr had a quiet morning of gun maintenance at Favian church. Lydia continued meditating to heal.

A Fallen Comrade

Adrian agreed that Snowfall could take the day off and get some spa treatment. He headed to Feducci’s to start recruitment of some more bodyguard muscle. While he was there, Alpha Wolf burst into the restaurant and told him Shadow Creeper had been badly hurt, and he had rescued her, but they needed a healer.

They went to the Stacks, to one of Alpha Wolf’s safehouse apartments, and Adrian saw Shadow Creeper in terrible shape and barely hanging on, unconscious. He went to the pay phone and called Favian Manor; Genevieve was out, but Lydia was in, as was Kinslton. They came immediately, and Kinslton used mythos magic to heal Shadow Creeper from the shadow of death to the picture of health.

He engaged in some awkward flirting that was somewhat distressing to Shadow Creeper, and somehow got into a macho contest with Alpha Wolf that immediately led to arm wrestling, where Kinslton’s scrawny arm crushed Alpha Wolf’s beefy arm in nothing flat. Now Kinslton and Alpha Wolf were bro buddies, somehow.

Assault on Acme Theater

Shadow Creeper had regained her composure and made clothes out of shadow, and she told them a necromancer named Thriftycycle was building an undead army in South Settler. The locals interred their dead in an unfinished sewer system, so there were an incredible number of corpses for the necromancer to pervert and raise. She tried to sneak past his zombies and take him out directly, but ghosts were a problem; she was spotted, then swarmed, and barely got away.

They returned to Favian Manor to load up, picking up Burr, Genevieve and Anna, and Amy. Amy donned her battle costume for its first adventure. The nine rode forth in two cars and a motorcycle; Alpha Wolf put on an eyepatch and Kinslton rode on his shoulder in raven form, and Alpha Wolf yelled incoherently something about being Odin.

Shadow Creeper guided them in past barricades and deceptions to get into South Settler, and they stealthily approached a theater built 80 years ago that spent most of its life abandoned. They made the approach, and were spotted by ghosts; they discovered Lydia’s sword has some effect on the incorporeal, if incomplete.

The Shambling Thing

The back wall of the theater ruptured and a 7 meter monster made of corpses lumbered out to attack them. Lydia held it in place as the others attacked it with magic, claws, blades, the Viper cannon, and whatever else was handy. It changed form, but was held in place by telekinesis. Alpha Wolf lost himself in the attack, and Kinslton found digging through dead meat with his demon claws was like a memory of better times; the arch-demon might have been bleeding into his consciousness some.

Shadow Creeper went for the flanking move, and Genevieve followed, so Anna did too. The rest of the gang put the massive shape-shifting undead thing down. It was held together by a kilometer of barbed wire where the barbs were necromatic glyphs; some sophisticated stuff. Hundreds of zombies lurched forth, and met gunfire and blades.

Thriftycycle the Necromancer

A hole burst open in the roof, and the necromancer flew up. He wore a meat suit made of muscles, with enchanted knuckle-dusters made of skulls, wings, bile sacs, and other innovations. The wings were flayed human skin, and it soared up as he taunted them.

Lydia hurled Kinslton at Thriftycycle with telekinesis, and the demon corax scrabbled brutally at the startled necromancer. Shadow Creeper joined the assault. After Kinslton delivered a Dread Curse right to the necromancer’s face, shadow powers slid him out of the suit; Kinslton brought it down as Shadow Creeper put the necromancer in her shadows to be dealt with later.

Mop Up

Lydia’s telekinesis helped mound a pyre. To keep it from creating a bane site or something equally awful, they called in Burninator to weave in quantum energies and burn the necromancy clean. He did so with enthusiasm, also burning the inside of the operating theater. Burr found and disabled a number of occult signs, and Adrian found the necromatic staff that was fed to the fire.

They gathered in the concrete control room under the derelict arcology in Torpedo Bay. Mugsy was feeling much better, and contacted Tidelia with underwater speakers, so she would guard the boat and he could go along and help. Kryptma roused Lydia and warned her to seek help if she got scales, but wings were okay; wait, what? Burr and Genevieve traveled from Feducci’s to the arcology by borrowed car.

Genevieve picked up a lone darkshell nesting in the arcology, but they figured they would leave it alone and it would leave them alone.

The Pitch

While they were strategizing their next moves and getting in some meditation, Mugsy heard a hyper frequency (only dogs could hear it) morse code “Genevieve” and a number. She mirrorstepped to the Mausoleum to look up the number, she recognized it as a frequency for the transponders for the dirigibles.

While at the Mausoleum she met the IAGO assassin unit formerly known as Daniel Burke, now known as Anna Burke, who seemed acclimatized to the new body and witchblade symbiote. Genevieve found that all the dirigibles were in lockdown, at maximum height to stay out of the way of emergency responders unless they needed to dock for some reason. The dirigible in question belonged to a wealthy family that was currently out of the city on vacation. She also checked the origin point of the frequency, and found a closed down radio station in Foscoe Gardens.

They returned to the control room under the arcology. Lydia got a psychic picture of the location of the radio station from Genevieve, and she teleported there with Mugsy. Mugsy quickly picked up the scent of Echran and Graves, but still broke in to turn the signal off.

Ready to Soar

Meanwhile Genevieve contacted the Ghost, who was looking into something riling the Chauncies; when she was told about the frequency, and that it was off, she agreed to help them reach the dirigible if they went to the Mausoleum in 20 minutes.

Genevieve contacted Amy, who was worried about them, and had Lydia teleport to pick her up and return to the control room. Meanwhile Kinslton flew in bird form to scout the dirigible.

Because moving everyone would be difficult, Lydia teleported to the rooftops of Fortress Square with Burr to be onsite as backup if needed.

Kinslton flew up to the dirigible and saw the two wizards and their four lackies and some kid of dimensional shielding around the cabin. He flipped off the wizard, who spotted him with an enchanted monocle, and dove. The wizard fired a couple near misses after him before he reached cover in Fortress Square.

Amy got to fly the Ghost Jet, with Genevieve in the back seat managing psychic tac net and holding on to Snowfall, the poor owl going up in a jet. Others put on glide packs and held on to the wings behind miniature windscreens, so the Ghost, Anna, and Adrian could deploy from there.

Dirigible Assault

The Ghost Plane came in high, releasing the glide pack assault. Ana busted in and engaged two of the tough guys in hand to hand, Adrian shielded the boarders from magical attack and squared off with the Monocle (they weren’t sure what the leader’s name was.) Druanna bolted through the window and used her magic to fly, and Kinslton pursued her in raven form as the Ghost blew a stun explosive through the front windscreen, knocking two guys out.

The wizards had four schoolgirls on board, and dropped them unconscious through the floor. Lydia teleported up and down, using telekinesis to gather them close and teleportation to get them safely to the rooftops. The girls all had uniforms from the same charter school, so they’d be easy to place with their families.

Kinslton shifted to human form so he could use magic, and Druanna shot him unsuccessfully with magic; as he pounced, she went invisible, but he caught her anyway, nailing her with the Dread Curse of Azatoth before clawing her chest to ribbons.

Anna took a beating from the two tough guy wizards, then sent organic steel cables piercing through their bodies, inviting their surrender.

Adrian staggered Monocle with a magical battering, and the Ghost popped in from behind with a stunner to put him unconscious.

They rapidly looked through the dirigible cabin, scoring a couple laptops, a scroll case with Adrian’s wand, a crystal ball in a portable case, and Monocole’s wearables. As Anna stayed to guide the dirigible down and turn the four henchmen over to the authorities (she interrogated them and satisfied herself that as far as they knew there were no others from their organization in town) everyone else climbed aboard the Ghost Plane and flew back to the Mausoleum.

Epilogue

They returned to Favian Manor after Amy got a full speed victory lap with the Ghost Plane and Burr agreed to turn the two captive wizards over to her order. Graves didn’t like investigating for free, so he whisked Genevieve off so she could reward him for his efforts.

Burr transported the two wizards to a nearby town, moving them into an ambulance and going to a hospital where the Order of Hunters had a transport helicopter on the roof. The mission leader asked her if she wanted to stay in Edge City and network (they have a lot of prey go to ground there) or if she wanted to return. She decided to stay in Edge City for a while.

In the previous weeks, Kinslton had help from the Pocketers to finish the containment circle inlaid in his basement floor. He had a cozy lair down there. The archdemon Oracle possessing him also started training him in demonic combat, capturing pigeons then releasing them into a room and attacking them boldly.

Kinslton also found out that the Oracle was looking for the archangel Haniel, who was into oneness and integration and the radiance that releases. No idea where to start looking, though.

Lydia kept up her duties running the bookstore for Lady Underwood, and also trained to become more situationally aware with Amy. She also spent a lot of time in meditation, finding the immortal sword in her shadow and learning how to summon it and how to put it away, binding it to her life force.

It was the night before the Golden Hedgehog croquet tournament. The gang wanted Lydia to come along, and arranged for her to go with the Edler twins. Graves was going with Genevieve, because Daniel was not available to go. Emma was going with Adrian. While they were working out their fashions, Mugsy called up Kinslton and arranged for them to have a barbecue on the yacht during the event.

Meanwhile, a mysterious woman named Burr arrived in Edgarton with a case. She headed to Favian Church, where Fr. Abrams offered her awkward hospitality and contacted the Gray Ghost, who contacted Genevieve and the others. The Ghost asked Genevieve to bring Burr by secret paths to the Mausoleum. Genevieve and Adrian went to the church and took Burr through the mirror, emerging from the mirror to find the Ghost waiting for them.

Reconstituting Daniel

The Ghost’s research indicated Daniel could not be simply transplanted. The Ghost got a new body, and called in a favor with the Order of Hunters to get a witchblade. (The Ghost had talked this through with Daniel, who was willing to take on a female persona.) They watched the first steps as the witchblade woke after its transport, extracted Daniel’s brain, and inserted it into the body; the witchblade would act as a supplementary nervous system, and it also set to work reshaping the metal body.

Since the process would take some time, they went their separate ways. The Ghost headed to the University to nip a heroin ring in the bud (she had admissible evidence all rounded up, and planned to get the criminals to connect to it for delivery to the cops.) They headed back to the church and dropped Burr off, then went back to their party preparations.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

It was a rainy morning, but Kinslton and Mugsy enjoyed their cookout anyway. Mugsy took the yacht out so Kinslton could be the figurehead on the ship in the majestic rush of wind.

The Golden Hedgehog

The Golden Hedgehog was a brunch this year, and had billowing tents over the whole property so croquet could continue with no water splashes. Cain and Abel Edler were very friendly and welcoming to their exotic companion, Lydia.

Then Emma brought Adrian a drink and told him to drink it all up in one go. It was not Emma, but a disguised wizard with a knock-out potion; Adrian almost resisted, but was captured. Lydia saw the event from too far away to engage, but rushed over and met Emma arriving. Alarmed, the women sought out Genevieve, who detected that a man had been where Lydia saw the illusion of Emma, and left a clutch prop behind. They followed the direction of the tracks a bit, out the back of the tent city, and saw several vehicles pulling away. Genevieve’s senses picked out the one that was cloaked in illusion, and Lydia confidently hoisted it off the ground with her telekinesis to prevent its escape.

A wizard fired an arcane blast from inside the captured vehicle, coring Lydia. If she did not have mutant toughness and regeneration, she would have died on impact. The target vehicle roared off, police and rubberneckers rushed to see what was going on, and Genevieve sent someone to go get her portable mirror from the car. She rolled Lydia into it, and found a safe room under the morgue downtown to keep Lydia in stasis so she would not die. Genevieve sent Mr. Kissynose to go get Kryptma to help put Lydia back together.

Spooked, Emma and Ellis headed to Feducci’s restaurant to sit tight and stay safe until the situation was somewhat resolved.

A Deadly Press Conference

Meanwhile, there was a press conference going on in Fortress Square, over budgeting issues for law enforcement or something equally dry. Both Burr and the barbecue on the yacht were watching.

When Lena Wilts started speaking, Mr. Mystery leaped down onto the stage, shouted something about resisting tyranny on behalf of the Gray Ghost, and blew her head off with an arcane bolt. The attacker leered at the crowd from behind an arcane shield as bullets flew, then escaped dramatically.

Kinslton turned to a bird and flew back to the city, heading for Fortress Square.

When Genevieve telepathically linked with the Gray Ghost’s mind, she found the Ghost was dressing and leaving the Golden Hedgehog to deal with this assassination in Fortress Square. They swapped information; Adrian kidnapped, Wilts killed by “Mr. Mystery,” Lydia mortally wounded.

Genevieve managed to scream into Adrian’s drugged sleep enough to wake him; he had a bloody jacket with him, his wand was missing, he was in different clothes, in a corner penthouse of a Fortress Square hotel. A SWAT team was pummeling down the hallway towards him. He managed to meld out through the wall to the long drop outside the window, and go invisible, and begin floating down as he got his wits about him.

Genevieve mirror stepped to Downtown, and the three of them met in a basement, quickly joined by Kryptma. Genevieve sent Kryptma to help Lydia survive. The rest headed to Feducci’s to secure Emma’s safety.

Countering Threats

They mirror stepped to Feducci’s, where the mirror room was a place for jugglers to hang out for no reason in particular. They found Emma and Elllis (the bodyguard) downstairs treated to a fine lunch in a room full of aquariums. After lunch, they took Emma and Ellis to the gate leading to the Leatherbury Estate, where she should be safe. Then they headed to Adrian’s mansion, to pick up his owl, magical armor, and staff.

Things got confused. There were reports of the Gray Ghost in a gunbattle with the Gray Ghost on rooftops downtown. Genevieve contacted the Ghost, who was escaping after the other Ghost (who had supernatural powers) bugged out of the fight, but the Ghost figured she could escape through the sewers. She also asked that Genevieve contact Burninator and steer him away; the city was getting locked down, and he couldn’t help. (Genevieve contacted him, steered him away with expected reluctance on his part, and kept tabs on the Ghost until she was safe.)

Talking with Burr, they found out she was in town to disable and capture a wizard of the Eternal Order of Shadow known as Malik West. Adrian recognized that as more of an alias or title than a name, probably the wizard in charge of operations in America. That could well be the impetus behind this clumsy attack on Adrian’s identity.

Adrian got a call from his sister, Druanna Ericson. She called from the yacht, she had Mugsy under her control. She lamented with him how goofy the wizard in charge of the operation was, and told him the overall point was to chase him out of the city.

Kryptma brought a dragon egg to where Lydia was hallucinating between life and death. Kryptma put the egg in the hole in Lydia’s chest, and broke it, sacrificing the dragon’s immortality to rebuild Lydia’s mutant form, healing over half the damage the mystic bolt did.

Rescuing Mugsy

Adrian and Kinslton went to the yacht to pick up Mugsy and make sure he was okay. Mugsy was eager to go hide where Emma was. Snowfall’s doubt and native suspicion provoked a closer look, and Adrian saw that the image of Mugsy was a disguise. Adrian went invisible to see how the wizard would react; the fake Mugsy didn’t break character, but also lacked the super senses Musgy had.

Meanwhile Kinslton mounted the gangplank, determined in brief conversation Mugsy was a bad guy in disguise, and dropped the Dread Curse. The badly hurt wizard staggered to the deck and went over, disappearing into the water.

Adrian and Kinslton went downstairs to find Mugsy bound by spiders the size of a head clamping around his torso like a corset. Adrian made him incorporeal to slip him out, and the spiders attacked Kinslton, climbing all over him. Adrian helped by shooting, and they crushed the spiders.

The rogue wizards in town had a lot to answer for, and the city’s defenders were good and steamed about all these attacks. Time to hunt them down.

Hunting Spirits

Tuesday, February 9, 2010. Night.

Mugsy starts his day off after “work” on Tuesday, not willing to be helpful until Thursday morning.

Genevieve goes to visit the Gray Ghost, healing her up and discussing future collaboration. The Ghost is wary of committing to working closely together until Painkiller is out of the picture. The Ghost’s priority is dealing with Painkiller, and then finding a way to close the Brass Embassy. And, after that, dealing with Ryan (a wayward family member.)

Genevieve fills her in on all that the adventurers have been doing, including the probable Seertech technology trap in Torpedo Bay; the Ghost is too busy to spring the trap, but offers Genevieve the chance to do so if she wants.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010. Morning.

Arke and Kryptma visit Favian Manor through mirrors; Daniel will put motion sensors near them. Kryptma will set up the shaman party to introduce Arke around. Genevieve sternly warns Arke away from nesting in Dencentrael; too close to sleeping with the enemy.

Genevieve and Daniel visit Blake. He reaffirms his loyalty. Later, they walk through his place considering potential security upgrades. Then they go purchase a piano.

Adrian visits Feducci’s and asks the Brotherhood to provide cartage to get the shipment of Chatterly’s books to Blake’s mansion. The books are delivered without any problem.

Arke hunts down a bane spirit and persuades it to teach him an attack gift, paying for it by beating a homeless man. Then he goes into the Umbra to find Bartholemew, his contact, and ask to learn another gift; he does, but his will is exhausted, so he pesters Bartholemew with questions until his curiosity is somewhat satisfied.

Adrian meets with Chatterly to get his report on birds as familiars. Chatterly reports birds are most often attached to strong wizards known as “weapons of fate.” Birds are bound for life, never released except as a trick. This form of slavery was banned in the 16th century, about the same time shapeshifting magic was banned.

When Adrian visits Emma later, she tells him about her occult experimentation after her father died, with ouiji boards and the like. She wants Adrian to help her continue those experiments, and he is hesitant and wary.

Stone Garden Party

Late that night they go to Stone Garden to the shaman party, a half step off Prime. The adventurers meet Kryptma and Red again; Red wants to hunt Fenris. They meet Ash and Nictu. The Masker (Keith) gives Arke a rain check on learning a gift. They meet Heston, Lady Boom, and Finn. (Lady Boom spent 13 proto-dimensions to close the Hellmouth, and she’s mad about it.) They meet Keenan, spirit hunter. Marcy, with Grampie Bone. Jim Wilson, the crab guy. Then everyone heads home.

Blake questions Smith about Kennedov with little success. Arke shorts out Mugsy’s television, so the bodyguard leaves the townhouse. Genevieve meets with the Shell Clan and is accepted as the jonin’s student.

Thursday, February 11, 2010. Morning.

Adrian takes tea with Lady Catherine Underwood, bringing a bottle of wine of the vintage of the same year the Leatherbury Estate was lost. Underwood gives him a ring to give Emma, but is concerned about whether or not he knows her well enough to marry.

Attacking the Defender of Hell

Tuesday, February 9, 2010. Morning.

Emma decides she likes (and will keep) Ellis and Grimm as bodyguards.

Arke goes to Dencentrael to look for housing. He rents a townhouse; Jessica approves, and Mugsy is lost to the new world of high definition television. Mugs arranges to have a day off to enjoy all the television.

Genevieve checks on the news until Adrian shows up, wanting to coordinate an effort to set up an early warning system to detect Onaga when he comes. Burninator comes and wants to talk to Blake; he used fire to attack Dr. Porter’s lodgings in Besquelle when an obscene monster tried to kill him there, and he wants to know what Blake knows about Dr. Porter’s whereabouts.

Burninator feels the city needs Tidelia, and she can’t come back until Dr. Porter and the CEO of Daggett Industries are dealt with, so he is frustrated. He offers to trade favors with Blake; Blake will check with the Brass Embassy to see what he can find out about where Dr. Porter is hiding, and Burnintaor will help him at some future time.

Errands

Genevieve, Adrian, Arke, and Mugsy go to the Leatherbury Estate and see how much of the baneful energy has been subsumed into feral rabbit life spirits, processing the filth and cleansing the place some. Adrian tells the story of the Leatherbury Estate to Arke and Mugsy.

Then they return to Prime, driving to Settler and meeting with Skiff. Adrian warns him about Onaga, ninja, snakes, and the Khan. Skiff agrees to keep an eye out for them. Then he updates them on a truce between Seertech and the Bounders regarding the waste reclamation factory in South Settler. Skiff also tells them word on the street is out about a secret basement in Torpedo Bay with forbidden Seertech equipment in it. Skiff also knows about new, less restrictive tech licenses going through the legislative process for both gat bots and cops.

Genevieve warns Skiff that Fenris is in town. Arke introduces himself as “Mr. Rabbit” with a business card and everything.

Meanwhile, Blake gets a message from the Brass Embassy, to prepare for a big event celebrating the arrival of the embassy’s defender.

As everyone convenes at Favian Manor, Genevieve gets a call from the Ghost that she is needed; turning on the television, they see the Downtown precinct attached to the hospital is under attack. They suit up, and go through the Umbra, arriving near the scene.

Death Toll

They push through the infernal energy, arriving about the same time Hammerhand does. He goes to work rescuing police from infernally possessed corpses.

The adventurers go back into the Umbra, homing in on a pinhole where the energies of Hell gush into the Periphery and Prime. They come out nearby, in the morgue, and confront an armored man who is animating corpses with hellish energy.

The armored man is gripping Hammerhand, pouring infernal energy into him; Adrian cores him with a mystic bolt, and shields the group as they retrieve Hammerhand and the dead leader, the undead scattering from them.

Hammerhand is infected with infernal energy, but goes to help the cops. The Gray Ghost tells them to get clear, she’s still fighting the undead. The adventurers examine the body, finding a recently discharged military vet who still has injuries.

They escape back to Favian Manor.

Aftermath

The news has pundits blaming the Ghost, and Wilters confirming callsign “Death Toll” for the meta they slew. Adrian thinks it over, and figures maybe “Death Toll” was a soldier who was mortally wounded and made a deal with demons to survive. The energy in the undead should dissipate with time, now that the connection is severed. Maybe Death Toll did not know he was the Brass Embassy’s protector, but the energy drew him here without him understanding why.

Genevieve telepathically invites Hammerhand to come to them, and he does; she uses her sword and her fate to sever the infection in his throat from where Death Toll gripped him, freeing him from a potential infernal energy infection of his quantum field. Grateful, he left.